About TEC Student Data Privacy Alliance

History of MSPA

Started in Cambridge Public Schools by Steve Smith, CIO Cambridge Public Schools, in 2015, the MSPA launched a service to provide districts a way to tackle these difficult privacy issues. Partnering with Steve Smith, TEC launched an alliance that was created to:

1. Provide districts with shared access to training, administrative support and expert legal counsel;
2. Leverage our collective influence with vendors to protect student data; and
3. Accelerate and expand the adoption of a common student data privacy agreement used by all member schools.

About the TEC Student Data Privacy Alliance

Established in 1968, The Education Cooperative (TEC) is a Massachusetts DESE approved educational collaborative and 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. TEC develops and coordinates educational and organizational programs to meet the needs of our member communities and their students and promotes inter-district collaboration that strengthens all participants and offers the opportunity to do more than one district can do individually.

The TEC Student Data Privacy Alliance is a successful collaborative service model developed to provide schools and districts with administrative and legal support to negotiate privacy terms with their software vendors. Our service was launched in 2016 in response to the needs of the Technology Directors of the TEC member districts. Many had attempted to secure signed Data Privacy Agreements (DPAs) for the online resources in use at their districts but found that without dedicated administrative
resources and adequate funding for legal services, it proved to be an expensive and time consuming struggle that yielded mixed results.

We recognized that by working together, we could achieve internal economies of scale and leverage our negotiating strength by collaborating to outsource these specialized tasks and processes. In cooperation with the SDPConsortium, TEC developed a statewide DPA for MA, NH, RI and ME which articulates the vendor duties and responsibilities required to protect student data in compliance with all applicable federal and state privacy statutes including FERPA, PPRA, COPPA, 603 C.M.R. 23.00 and MA General Law Chapter 71, Sections 34D to 34H.

Today, our annual service provides over 200 districts in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island with expert legal counsel and experienced contract administrators. To date we have over 1200 signed vendor agreements in place and when you join the TEC SDP Alliance you can immediately access these to jump-start protection for your district’s students.

A special thanks to our TEC Technology Directors and Steering Committee members for all the leadership and support they provide.