August 21 marks 50 years since the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) was passed into law. Back then, student privacy looked a lot different than it does today: The classrooms and textbooks of yesteryear presented much less risk than Google or artificial intelligence do, but education officials still had growing concerns over databases and record systems.

FERPA permits parents and eligible students (typically over 18) to inspect and correct their education records. It also requires consent before disclosure of personally identifiable information from those records, though there are numerous exceptions. In addition, schools must notify parents and eligible students annually of their updated FERPA rights.

With the advent of education technology, FERPA is really showing its age. Though it has changed slightly since its enactment, the last congressional update was over a decade ago, and regulations from the Department of Education are also woefully outdated. (FERPA updates and updates to other regulations from the Department are frequently said to be imminent, but as of this writing, none are public.)

Privacy concerns have steadily increased over the last few decades, as technology continues to develop and make increasingly intrusive incursions into every aspect of life. While FERPA without updates does provide at least some protections for students — unlike, say, consumers in general — the fact is, it does not mandate adequate safeguards.

Students and families in today’s digital world deserve modern protections that accurately reflect contemporary society and their learning experiences. Here are a few suggestions for bringing FERPA into its next half-century.

First, it should reflect that the information contained in student records is much broader than documents in files or scanned into computers. FERPA needs to be updated to protect students’ online information; protected “education records” should explicitly and unambiguously include online data created by students, including web browsing and search histories, interactions with tech tools and artificial intelligence chatbots, and other digital activity.

Read the full article about FERPA updates due to AI by Ariel Fox Johnson at The 74.