At DeKalb Community Unit School District 428, we take student information security seriously.
To maintain the confidentiality and integrity of the District's information, CUSD428 has implemented targeted processes and procedures. These can be categorized as:
- Systems that control where key information is stored.
- Access security practices and internal controls that restrict who has rights to view, add/delete, or edit information.
- Physical access controls to District data centers and key networking equipment.
Student Data and Privacy
Student data is protected through comprehensive privacy policies and security measures such as firewalls, secure servers, intrusion detection software, and other methods.
DeKalb Community Unit School District 428 follows and adheres to many of the state and federally mandated laws to protect the privacy of student data. If you want to learn more please click on the following links.
Where is student data held and where does it go?
The primary repository of student data is our Student Information System, Skyward. Skyward maintains student demographics, household contact information, enrollments, attendance, grades, schedules, transcripts, discipline, bus, lockers, health, IEP, and LEP information. The District does not retain Social Security Numbers within any system.
In addition to the Skyward system, the District also maintains multiple supporting systems that assist in running daily operations. Based on need, some student data is routinely transferred between these applications through a variety of secure and encrypted system integration processes.
Physical access to the data centers and the servers that house this data are limited to a small group of network and application administrators in the IT Department. These data centers are also secured with fire protection and power backup capabilities. We also take routine backups of key systems and data which are securely stored and protected.
With the evolution of cloud based solutions, the District also subscribes to some externally hosted applications which are integrated with our student information system through encrypted data communications. Below is a list of various outside agencies that the District provides data to and/or receives data from. Data transferred includes basic student information such as names and schedules so staff and student can log into applications and access materials configured by the District.
Additionally, the District provides testing agencies such as ACT, PARCC, NWEA, ISA, etc. with basic student identification as part of the testing and scoring process. The District reports all required data to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and other government agencies.
Google Apps for Education
The District provides all students with a Google Apps for Education Account. This account allows them to collaborate and share documents with their teacher and fellow students and is an essential component of the classroom. We share limited information with Google solely for account creation purposes. This data, and any data created as a function for using a Google Apps for Education account, belongs to CUSD428. This type of account is different than having a personal gmail account. Google does not scan student content or email for advertising purposes as they do with regular consumer accounts.
Please review the Google Apps for Education Privacy Statement.
SOPPA
Other Data Privacy Laws