Student Privacy Upgrades Wait Signature Of Colorado Governor

DENVER (AP) — A bill giving Colorado one of the nation's toughest state laws to protect the privacy of student data awaits the governor's signature.

The House and Senate on Thursday settled differences on the bill to spell out what becomes of students' personal information collected by software programs and apps used in the classroom.

That data ranges from grades to behavioral problems.

Technology has rapidly outpaced federal student privacy law, prompting 35 states to enact their own laws.

Unlike those laws, Colorado's bill calls for "personally identifiable information" to be destroyed, not just deleted. Deleted information can be retrieved.

The bill states that student data cannot be used for advertising or sold to third parties. Violators could lose their contracts with schools or the state.

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