School District of Philadelphia’s $19m contract with imagine learning
that’s a lot of money to stick the kids in front of a screen all day??
The backstory to this RTKL request starts with me having to admit that I am worrying a lot about something that won’t actually be an issue for my family for a few more years. But in this specific situation, my over-the-top approach is probably warranted. I am REALLY worried about sending my kids to a school that’s just going to stick them in front of a laptop half the day and they won’t actually learn anything.
(My older brother is a middle school teacher in another state, and he says I’m right that the overuse of technology in school is terrible, but also that I should try harder not to be annoying.)
The School District of Philadelphia issues every single student their own Chromebook. I wanted to find out if I can just say NOPE to that, at least while my kids are in elementary school. It is not clear whether the School District lets kids opt out of this. But people in Lower Merion are worked up about it so maybe I’m not totally nuts here.
To start, I got a copy of the contract the School District has with one of the big learning platform vendors, Imagine Learning. I don’t think this had been posted publicly anywhere (could be wrong though!) because it took the District forever to produce it and they redacted a bunch of stuff.
First up: the contract price: $19 million now, with an option to extend the term for another $10m:
Next, some provisions from the Supplier Terms of the Contract. TLDR: the School District is granting this company a license to use the Customer Content (which includes any information submitted by or on behalf of any student) “as necessary” to provide services.
What does it say about privacy? I found this part to be pretty vague. But this type of contract is NOT my wheelhouse, maybe it’s standard. I don’t love that they say they’ll store student information just “in accordance with customary industry standards.” One of the main reasons to have a contract is to have a clear understanding and defined terms for the parties so they all play by the same rules. What are the industry standards? Is it vibes or is there an industry group that publishes guidance?
Also - “Customer is responsible for providing notice of its own privacy policy to parents of its students and is solely responsible for obtaining any necessary parental consents for students to use the Services.” What consents do you need in Pennsylvania?
I know this clause just means that students/families don’t have standing to enforce the contract between the District and Imagine, but it’s still not a great look to be like “no one benefits from this” lol
Imagine’s Privacy Policy is included as an exhibit to the Contract. Not thrilled about the school district forcing kids to hand over all this information!!! Wtf do you mean they collect “audio recordings” and student generated content??
That’s a hard no from me, some random company making my kid upload audio recordings and retaining them? Either you’re a total weirdo for collecting these, or you want my child’s audio to serve as training date for some AI model?? NO THANK YOU.
“processed” how?
As is my practice with my hobby (this blog), I am uploading the actual documents I received in response to my RTKL request below for all who care to read: