Delaware City Schools was recently awarded the Trusted Learning Environment (TLE) Seal for its privacy policies and practices to protect student information.

The award was given by The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and requires “school systems to implement high standards for student data privacy protections around five core practice areas: Leadership, Business, Data Security, Professional Development and Classroom.”

“Delaware City Schools is the latest district in Ohio to leverage CoSN’s Trusted Learning Environment privacy framework to support improvements in their student data privacy practices,” said CoSN CEO Keith Krueger. “We applaud their work and their ongoing commitment to student data privacy.”

Delaware City Schools Chief Technology Officer Jen Fry said the district implemented new elements in each of the five areas, including having up-to-date policies and regulations addressing data privacy; implementing a process for vetting online services for data privacy and security; and putting a process in place to communicate data incidents to appropriate parties.

“The Trusted Learning Environment Seal is a framework of student data privacy best practices,” Fry said. “The TLE framework has provided us with an actionable plan to protect student data privacy in our school district. When you have a plan, you can work toward achieving the action steps one by one.”

Fry said the award demonstrates the district’s “commitment to examining and advancing student data privacy practices to our community.”

“I am proud that we have earned the Trusted Learning Environment Seal,” Fry said. “The seal is a recognition of many changes that we have made and the culture of privacy that we have developed in Delaware City Schools over the last few years. We will continue to examine and improve our practices in the future.”

According to CoSN’s website, seal recipients are required to reapply every two years.

Glenn Battishill can be reached at 740-413-0903.