Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the frequently asked questions relating to the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC). They have been divided into six different categories:
If you do not find the answer below, please contact us.
If your State has an Alliance already set up:
- Go to the SDPC Resource Registry: https://sdpc.a4l.org
- Under ‘State Alliances’, select the relevant Alliance and click ‘Visit an Alliance’>
- Then click on ‘View Participating Districts’ (left hand side) and if your School District is not listed, click on ‘Request a District Account’ at the top of the page.
- Enter your information, and click ‘Request Account’. The State Alliance admin will then receive/review/approve your request.
If your State does not have an Alliance set-up, you will need to join the Student Data Privacy Consortium: https://www.a4l.org/page/SDPCMembership2
Once your account request has been approved by the State Alliance Admin, they may contact you to start the ‘on-boarding’ process. Some State Alliances have set-up an on-boarding process so that you can familiarize yourself with all the relevant Agreements and the correct procedure for uploading documentation.
You can add a resource by clicking on Your Resources > Add a Resource in the navigation bar.
Please check that you have uploaded the document with the correct filename and process. One common issue is that the file is more then 10MB and fails to upload. Please make sure the file is web-ready being the file is compressed and the file name has no spaces or uncommon punctuation. If you have any further questions about the procedure, please contact your State Alliance Admin.
You don’t need to but, to give your families and staff members a complete list of all resources used in your school district, it is a good idea. Just select “Approved/No Data Collected” as the status type.
You can typically download the vendor’s logo off of their website as well as find the purpose of the resource.
Yes, you can add the resource with out the vendor’s contact information. You can always add it back under the Manage Resources screen.
You can see a list of resources that are in the SDPC Resource Registry by clicking on the Search the Database ‘Get Started’ button. You can search by State, District, Resource, Company Name, and Grade Level/Content Area.
To add additional users for your district, click on User Account Management > Add Additional District Account. Then fill out the necessary information to complete the process.
The alliance admin can take care of this for you.
To manage your district workflows, visit User Account Management > Manage Progress Workflow. Here you can add and delete steps in your workflow process as well as add custom email notification messages that will be sent to requestors when the progress status changes.
To add additional users for your district, click on User Account Management > Add Additional District Account. Then fill out the necessary information to complete the process.
To review new account requests for approval, visit User Account Management > Approve Pending Account Requests. Here you will have the option to approve or deny access to the users. Once you make a decision, the account requestor will be notified by email automatically with your decision.
To add a new agreement type, please visit Other District’s Agreements > Manage State Privacy Agreement Templates.
To upload a new version of an agreement, please visit the Manage Agreements screen and click on “Change Agreement Type.” Here you will be asked to upload the new document and make any other changes that are necessary.
To view and manage all users in your alliance, visit User Account Management > Manage Alliance Users.
To add a new user in your alliance, visit User Account Management > Manage Alliance Users > Add New User. After you create the user, you can go back to the Manage Users screen to manage their additional roles and associations.
We don’t want to delete a user since they are linked to their past activity with the district. Instead, you can remove their associations and role so, if they login, they won’t be able to continue to manage that district. Then, you would want to add their replacement as a new user and add their association and role as the district.
To manage trainings, visit Tools > Manage Trainings. Here you can add and delete training dates. You can view your attendees and delete attendees from a training date.
To be included on the SDPC Resource Registry (https://sdpc.A4L.org), you will need to sign an Agreement with a School District. Firstly, search the Registry (https://sdpc.a4l.org/search_national.php) and review the list of participating Districts in the State you wish to be listed in, and get in contact with them. Once you have signed an Agreement, the School District will upload the Agreement onto the SDPC Resource Registry. If you would like to be included for multiple Districts within a State, please contact the State directly. SDPC Vendor Members can add their resources to the Resource Registry directly.
To change your password, visit User Account Management > Change Password. If you forgot your password, you can click on Forgot password on the login screen. Then you will be asked to enter your account email address. An email will be sent to that email address on file with next steps to change the password.
Each Agreement is signed directly with a School District. If you have signed an Agreement but it is not listed on the SDPC Resource Registry, please contact the School District directly to discuss this further.
The SDPC webmaster does not upload signed Agreements on behalf of participating School Districts or States.
A Data Privacy Agreement (DPA) is a legally binding document that serves a few purposes:
- establishes the school official relationship between a school and a provider
- establishes the required school ‘control’ over the provider,
- outlines allowed uses of student data
- defines required security measures
- addresses other localized legal requirements.
DPA’s may be executed along with other Agreements/terms of service, or they may stand alone.
A ‘general offer of terms” for a contract executed between a school district and a vendor to be “piggy backed” by other schools with a single signature page. The agreement addendum streamlines and simplifies privacy contracting between marketplace providers and schools within an Alliance.
To download a copy of the Data Privacy Agreement, firstly go to the State Alliance page that you wish to enter into an agreement with (from the SDPC Resource Registry home page, select the State from the drop down list under ‘State Alliances’, then click ‘visit Alliance’).
If the State has a Data Privacy Agreement available it will be listed in the ‘Data Privacy Agreement’ box.
Please contact your State Alliance Admin directly. Once you have logged into the SDPC Resource Registry, you will be able to access the relevant contact information. You can also click on View Agreement info, which provides a detailed description about each agreement type.
To add an agreement, please click on Your District’s Agreements > Add Agreement from the main navigation bar. Then follow the prompts.
Please check that you have uploaded the document with the correct filename and process. If you have any further questions about the procedure, please contact your State Alliance Admin.One common issue is that the file is more then 10MB and fails to upload. Please make sure the file is web-ready being the file is compressed and the file name has no spaces or uncommon punctuation.
This will depend on what type of agreement was signed by the vendor. To learn more about agreement types for your alliance, please go to your Alliance home page.
No, the vendor does not need to sign the full agreement of Exhibit E again. Although, we do recommend send a copy of the signed Exhibit E to the vendor to make sure they are aware your district is using the resource.
No. You can only sign the Exhibit E from an Originating Agreement if it is for YOUR State.
Currently there is no automatic way to upload multiple agreements at once. But, you can fill out the Bulk Import Template listed under Tools. After this, you would send it to the Webmaster to be imported.
This could be due to a few reasons. First, please make sure that the file name has no spaces or strange punctuation in the file name. Use underscore marks instead of spaces. Secondly, the file size must be less then 10MB to upload. If it is more then that, the upload will fail.
Sure, if you click on Your District’s Agreements > Manage Agreements and then using the search tool, navigate to the resource entry. Then click on Copy on the right side.
Yes, they can. Under Tools > Digital Resource Request Form are instructions on how to add a link to a customized form for your staff to request a new resource. Once they request the resource, an email notification will be sent to your district admin.
Under Tools > Customized Listing for Your Website are instructions on how to add a link to a family-friendly searchable listing of your vetted resources. The header of this listing can be customized by clicking on User Account Management > Edit District Account. Then fill out the last two fields.
It is recommended that you send a list of common data elements identified to the vendor to check off when seeking a signed agreement for the vendor. Then these can be entered in to the system when you add the agreement.
To add or delete data elements, visit Your Resources > Manage Resources. Navigate to the resource entry by using the search function. Then click on add or delete in the right side navigation list.
A progress admin is the person who is currently responsible for working on a new request. To assign a new admin, one should visit the Manage Agreements screen. Under there, they can select a new progress admin from the drop-down bar. Upon selecting a new admin, they will be notified by email. This drop-down menu is auto-populated with all the users for your district.
When changing the progress status of a new request, an email notification will be sent automatically to the requestor of the resource. The message sent can be a default message based on the status or the district admin can customize these messages by visiting User Account Management > Manage Progress Workflows.
- If you reach a page with an error message and/or the page doesn’t display.
- If the form doesn’t submit when uploading an Agreement (please make sure the file is smaller than 10MB)
- Any other technical issue that is not listed or answered by an FAQ.