HCPSS MPIA Request #2025-073

Requestor
Hiruy Hadgu
Requested Information
Pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act (PIA), I am requesting access to the following records related to the use of educational technology tools in classrooms within the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS):

List of educational technology tools currently being used in the classroom:
Specifically, I am requesting information on the use of the following tools, including but not limited to: Gaggle, Securly, Bark, GoGuardian, Lightspeed Systems, Linewize, NetRef.

Usage of tools:
How are each of the listed tools (or similar tools) used in classrooms, and for what purposes (e.g., monitoring, content filtering, safety, communication, etc.)?

Vendor information:
For each tool, please provide the name of the vendor, the data-sharing agreement between HCPSS and the vendor, and the terms under which the tool is provided to HCPSS.

Student privacy protection:
What measures does HCPSS take to protect student privacy when using these tools?
Specifically, how does HCPSS ensure that student data is protected when using these tools in the classroom?

Data retention and usage by the vendor:
What information is retained by the vendors of the tools mentioned above, and how long is the data retained?
How do the vendors use the data collected from HCPSS students? Please provide details regarding the vendor's data retention policies, as well as how the data is used (e.g., for analysis, improvement of services, marketing, etc.).
Date Received
Status
Submitted

*Some request language is summarized to include the requester's specific document requests and legally protected information (such as personally identifiable information of a student) or personal, defamatory and malicious content removed at the discretion of the school system.

**Responses containing legally protected information available only to the person of interest are omitted from the above report.

***Howard County Public Schools reserves the right to remove erroneous or outdated documents from this site.