Protecting the Privacy and Confidentiality of Student Data
The WVDE continues its commitment to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of student data in a
multitude of ways as follows.
Existing mechanisms
 WVBE Policy 4350
 WVDE Data Access and Management Guidance
 HB 4316 –Student Data Accessibility, Transparency and Accountability Act of 2014
 Data Governance structure in place
o Data Policy Committee (includes external stakeholders from other agencies)
o Data Governance Committee (includes LEA representatives)
o Data Steward Task Teams
 Role-based access to WVEIS and WVEIS on the Web (WOW)
 Security forms for access to data for WVDE employees that require justification for job-related
duties and supervisor sign-off, along with assurances to adhere to FERPA
 Required review of data privacy and security training materials for all WVDE staff granted access
to secure data
 Encrypted email through Office 365 for Education
 FERPA training for WVDE, RESA, district, and school-level employees by the Data Governance
Team
 Contract templates for district and school use that explicitly describe the FERPA/privacy terms
by which a vendor must adhere
 Requirement for signed Confidentiality and Non-disclosure Agreements by any vendor employee
working with WVDE
Up-coming mechanisms
 ZoomWV’s public site (coming in late October) only contains aggregate student data—no
personally identifiable information, even on the server itself!
 Implementation of the WVDE Active Directory, which is role-based, for the secure side of
ZoomWV (coming this winter)
 Development of a comprehensive Privacy Incident Response Plan to be implemented beginning
in late fall
 Updated Breach/Incident reporting documents
 Development of an annual, public report describing any privacy incident and/or breaches
 Development of a privacy and security toolkit containing templates, resources, and other
training materials for LEA/school use
 Development of identity authentication/verification forms for LEA/school use when
parent/guardian data requests are made
 Data Ethics training courses for WVDE Data Stewards
Questions? Please contact the Data Governance Team via email at zoomwv@access.k12.wv.us or via
phone at 304-558-7881.
WVDE
October 2014