Texas Student Privacy Act

Under the Texas Student Privacy Act, TOPS is responsible for protecting students’ personal information from unauthorized use, access, or disclosure. These responsibilities include:

• TOPS will not use students’ personal information to create an online profile for a particular student, unless this profile is strictly used for a school purpose, as defined under the law.
• TOPS will not use students’ personal information for the purposes of targeted advertising.
• TOPS will follow security measures that are designed to protect students’ personal information from unauthorized use, access, disclosure, modification, and deletion.
• TOPS will not sell or rent students’ personal information, subject to certain exceptions. Such exceptions include instances where the sale or renting of personal information is in regards to post-secondary educational opportunities or scholarships, among others.

Conversely, under the Texas Student Privacy Act, TOPS is permitted to disclose personal information relating to students under the following circumstances:

• To protect against liability.
• To participate or respond to the judicial process.
• To ensure legal and regulatory compliance.
• To protect the safety and integrity of an online operator’s website, application, or online service.
• To assist in a legitimate research purpose.
• To assist a student in pursuing post-educational opportunities.

Under the Texas Student Privacy Act, the categories of personal information that are covered under the provisions of the law include but are not limited to:

• Email addresses.
• Physical addresses.
• Educational records.
• First and last names.
• Telephone numbers.
• Health and medical records.
• Social security numbers.
• Political affiliations.
• Religious information.
• Biometric information.
• Discipline records.
• Grades and evaluations.