Questions to ask before putting IEP data in an app
If you are the one choosing a data-collection app, you are also the one left holding the problem when it turns out to keep more than it should. Vetting one doesn't take a law degree. It takes six questions, and knowing which answers come from the law, which come from Apple, and which are only a vendor's promise.
Throughout this post, anything taken from a rule or official guidance is quoted and named. Anything that is our opinion says so. One fictional example appears in the section on district coverage, and it is labelled as fiction.
Where do student names actually live?
Ask this first, because it decides most of the others. A student's name can sit on your device, on the vendor's servers, or both. Ask the vendor directly, and ask what is stored in its place when the name isn't sent.
Our opinion: names that stay on your device can't leak from a server, can't be handed over in response to a request the vendor receives, and can't be lost in someone else's breach. That doesn't make server storage wrong; it changes what you need to ask next.
Speed matters here more than it seems. When capture is slow, teachers fall back on sticky notes, personal spreadsheets or one shared login just to keep up, and that is how names end up in places nobody planned. We cover how to keep it quick without cutting corners in our guide to fast, accurate daily data collection.
Is the data used for anything besides serving you?
This is where the law comes in, so here is what the official guidance actually says.
FERPA: when an outside party counts as a "school official." The U.S. Department of Education's Student Privacy Policy Office lists the conditions. The outside party must perform a service or function the school would otherwise use its own employees for; be "under the direct control of the agency or institution with respect to the use and maintenance of education records"; use the information only for the purpose it was disclosed for; and meet the criteria in the school's annual FERPA notification. Source: Student Privacy Policy Office, "Who is a 'school official' under FERPA?"
FERPA: using an app in your own classroom. The same office's advice to a teacher is that they "should first check with their school/district administration to see if that application or service is approved for use in the classroom," and should consult their IT representatives before using it. Source: Student Privacy Policy Office, "I want to use an online tool or application as part of my course…"
COPPA. The Federal Trade Commission says the rule "applies to operators of commercial websites and online services (including mobile apps and IoT devices) directed to children under 13 that collect, use, or disclose personal information from children." Source: FTC, "Complying with COPPA: Frequently Asked Questions," A.1
Many states also have their own student-privacy laws. They differ from state to state, so we won't summarise them here; your district's privacy lead will know which ones apply.
What to ask: who uses the app (only adults, or students too?), and where it is written that the data is not sold, not used for advertising and not used to train models. Our opinion: "We take privacy seriously" is not an answer. A sentence in the terms of service is.
What does Apple's own App Store privacy label already tell you?
Every iPhone and iPad app has an "App Privacy" section on its App Store page. It is free, it takes a minute to read, and most people never scroll down to it.
What Apple requires. Developers must describe their app's privacy practices to submit new apps and updates, and the product page shows "whether that data is linked to them or used to track them." Apple also tells developers: "You're responsible for keeping your responses accurate and up to date."
When something can be left off. A data type can be omitted only if it meets all of Apple's optional-disclosure criteria: it isn't used for tracking or for advertising or marketing; it is collected only in infrequent cases that aren't part of the app's primary functionality and are optional for the user; and the user knowingly provides it in the app each time. In Apple's words, "Data types must meet all criteria in order to be considered optional for disclosure."
What "tracking" means. Apple defines it as "linking data collected from your app about a particular end-user or device… with Third-Party Data for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes, or sharing data collected from your app about a particular end-user or device with a data broker."
Our opinion on how to read it: the label is the developer's own answer, not an audit, so use it as a starting point. Compare it with what the app obviously does. If an app makes you create an account and syncs your observations to its servers, its label should show some data linked to you. If it doesn't, ask the developer why.
Can you get everything out, and delete everything?
Ask three things:
- Can you export all of your data yourself, from inside the app, in a format a spreadsheet or your district's system can read?
- Can you delete it yourself, without emailing support?
- After you delete it, how long do copies remain on the vendor's side (backups, logs) before they are gone too?
The last question is the one people forget, and vendors answer it very differently. The example in the next section shows how much that difference can matter.
Does your personal subscription cover the district?
Look back at the official conditions above: an outside party acting as a school official is "under the direct control of the agency or institution," and the advice to teachers is to check first that the app is approved. Whether an account you opened yourself, with your own login, meets those conditions is your district's call, not yours and not the vendor's. So ask before the first real student goes in, not after.
The practical move is to ask the vendor whether it offers a data processing agreement, and to hand that to whoever owns student privacy in your district.
For transparency, our own position: IEP VoiceTracker's pricing page says a personal subscription does not by itself satisfy your district's privacy obligations. District admin controls, single sign-on, audit logs and retention controls are on our roadmap as planned work, not shipping features, and the school approval pack describes the data flow as it is today.
What happens when you stop paying?
Ask whether a downgrade or cancellation deletes your data, locks it, or only limits what you can do next. Our opinion: the acceptable answer is "limits." Your observations shouldn't be held behind a renewal.
For the record, our pricing page says: "Downgrading never deletes or locks your data. It only limits new premium actions." Subscriptions are managed through your Apple Account, and cancelling keeps your access until the end of the period you've paid for.
A short checklist
- Where do student names live: on the device, on a server, or both?
- Is it written in the terms that the data isn't sold, advertised against or used for training? Has your district approved the app?
- Does the App Store privacy label match what the app obviously does?
- Can you export and delete everything yourself, and how long do copies remain after deletion?
- Is there a data processing agreement, and has your district signed it?
- What happens to your data if you cancel: deleted, locked or only limited?
None of this requires a lawyer to ask first. Our own approach to these six questions is in our privacy page. If your district needs a signed data processing agreement before anyone rolls this out beyond a single teacher, email us or use the contact page — we'll send it same day.