In recent years, stu­dent data pri­va­cy laws have been the sub­ject of many debates in the edu­ca­tion com­mu­ni­ty. The Data Qual­i­ty Campaign’s 2015 leg­isla­tive sum­ma­ry report­ed that 46 states con­sid­ered 182 stu­dent data pri­va­cy bills, and 15 states enact­ed 28 such bills into law. These issues are also addressed in mul­ti­ple new fed­er­al bills, includ­ing a key amend­ment to the Senate’s bill to reau­tho­rize the Ele­men­tary and Sec­ondary Edu­ca­tion Act (ESSA), as well as a pro­posed amend­ment to the Fam­i­ly Edu­ca­tion­al Rights and Pri­va­cy Act (FER­PA). Our focus for this brown bag will be a piv­otal bill that the Louisiana leg­is­la­ture passed in their last ses­sion, Act 837, which ​“pro­vides for lim­i­ta­tions and pro­hi­bi­tions on the col­lec­tion and shar­ing of stu­dent infor­ma­tion.” This act went into effect last year and has sig­nif­i­cant impli­ca­tions for edu­ca­tors, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, and researchers – and real­ly any­one who works with stu­dent data. At this brown bag, we will present a brief overview of Act 837 and solic­it feed­back on how the law is affect­ing you and your work. This brown bag is an exten­sion of the work being done by ERA-New Orleans’ Data Ana­lyt­ics Col­lab­o­ra­tive (DAC). The DAC invites local prac­ti­tion­ers to join our team for month­ly meet­ings to engage in an ongo­ing dia­logue about best prac­tices in edu­ca­tion data ana­lyt­ics. For infor­ma­tion about join­ing the DAC, email our team.