The Kansas State Department of Education’s Information Technology (IT) team has put together a team of experts to help school technology directors and staff members, along with superintendents, principals and others who are interested, navigate the complex and critical practices of cybersecurity and data privacy.

The Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Professional Development Webinar Series will begin this month. The 60-minute webinars will take place at 1 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month in January, February, March, April, May and June.

Advance registration is required for each event. Registrants will receive a confirmation email containing information for joining the webinar.

The topic of this month’s webinar at 1 p.m. Jan. 17 is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The U.S. Department of Education, through the Student Privacy Policy Office’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), will conduct this introductory presentation on FERPA, which is a federal law protecting students’ privacy. Brittani Fairchild, a data privacy analyst for AEM/PTAC, will lead “FERPA 101.”

This presentation is intended as an introduction to the law and seeks to balance providing the legal background of the statute with real-world scenarios to which the law applies. Register by clicking here.

Fairchild also will lead the Feb. 21 session, “Vetting Online Educational Services.” In this presentation, she will discuss how FERPA applies in the context of education technology and provide a roadmap to understanding how to protect student privacy in the digital context. Register now by clicking here.

Other sessions include:

• 1 p.m., Wednesday, March 20: Creating a Cybersecurity Framework 1” – Developed by K-12 IT practitioners for K-12 IT practitioners, and aligned to cybersecurity risk management best practices, the K12 Security Information eXchange (K12 SIX) Essentials series establishes baseline cybersecurity standards for United States school districts. It also provides guidance and tools to support their implementation. This session is presented by Doug Levin, co-founder and national director of K12 SIX. Register now by clicking here.
• 1 p.m., Wednesday, April 17: “Creating a Cybersecurity Framework 2” – This session is presented by Levin. Register now by clicking here.
• 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 15: “FERPA 201 for IT” – PTAC challenges all attendees to put their knowledge about FERPA to the test. In this session, attendees will explore complex and varied real-world scenarios around student privacy. This session, led by Fairchild, will provide a forum for discussion of complex issues regarding FERPA. Register now by clicking here.
• 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 19: “Disaster Recovery Plans for IT” – More session information will be provided later. This session will be led by Samuel Alva, a cybersecurity adviser for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Register now by clicking here.