Increased technology in the classroom and schools overall means more student information can be susceptible to leaks and hacks. The last thing parents and administrators want is for students to have personal information such as their address, date of birth and more in the hands of those who might compile them for malicious activity.

Common Sense Education—along with 40 school districts nationwide—have come together for the launch of the Common Sense Privacy Evaluation Initiative. This initiative will be geared towards “helping schools evaluate privacy and information security practices of technology used in K-12 classrooms,” according to BroadwayWorld.

“In the first phase of a multi-year commitment, Common Sense will release the ‘Information Security Primer for Evaluating Educational Software’ to help districts review and apply a common set of privacy standards to the applications they use,” according to the report.

“By establishing a uniform set of practices and testing steps, this primer simplifies the process of evaluating basic information security practices in educational software applications.”

Far too often in the past decade, personal information has fallen into the wrong hands as a result of data breaches and hacks. Giving students, teachers and parents peace of mind is important when sensitive information is being exchanged on a daily basis. It’s also important to note that student machines could also be compromised in the event of a hack or the unintended installation of Malware from an application that has been breached. While EdTech is a tremendous step in the right direction for education, it comes with its own cautions.

“The Primer will be available April 1^st on Common Sense Graphite at graphite.org/privacy/security-primer,” according to the report.

“The Common Sense Privacy Evaluation Initiative began in 2014 when a group of school districts, including Fairfax County Public Schools and Houston Independent School District, approached Common Sense to address the complex and varied privacy policies of technology used in K-12 classrooms.”

Looking ahead shouldn’t come with the price of online safety and with programs like the Privacy Evaluation Initiative, it might not have to.

Read the full story here.

Article by Navindra Persaud, Education World Contributor.