Documents › Board of Education, 2026-05-19

resolution 2 pages

Also attached to this agenda item: ROC BOE RESOLUTION -26-27

Dear School District Administrator, The Chief Privacy Officer of the New York State Education Department ("NYSED") initiated efforts to streamline contracting and negotiation under New York Education Law 2-d for school districts. Accordingly, an intermunicipal collaborative was established to strengthen vendor management, data security, and data privacy practices for school districts and BOCES statewide. This collaborative is known as the RIC One Risk Operations Center (the "ROC"). The attached resolution is provided so that your district may authorize the ROC to negotiate Data Privacy Agreements (DPAs) with vendors and third-party contractors on behalf of your school district. In order for your district to participate with the ROC, this resolution must be presented to and approved by your Board each year. This process is similar to the annual resolution BOCES approve to participate in the Erie 1 NYS Instructional Technology Contract Consortium. Once your district approves the resolution, and the ROC finalizes a DPA with a vendor, the district will be able to use the DPA as a part of a master service agreement. Currently, there are data privacy agreements associated with 5,000 products. Before executing a specific DPA, between your district and a vendor, your agency will have the opportunity to download and review the standardized DPA language specific to that agreement. Although at this point, these DPAs cannot be modified or adjusted, districts always have the opportunity to review each DPA with their legal counsel before signing and moving forward with each vendor. By participating with the ROC, your district can benefit from the following: • Enhanced data privacy protection: One of the ROC’s purposes is to ensure the DPAs it negotiates are compliant with New York State Education Law Section 2-d and Part 121 Regulations, safeguarding student personally identifiable information (PII) and certain Teacher and Principal APPR data. • Reduced administrative burden: The ROC, through its legal network and attorneys, will handle the negotiation and approval of DPAs, saving your district time and resources. • Access to expert guidance: The ROC partners with NYSED, the Access4Learning Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC), and The Education Cooperative (TEC) to provide expert advice and support on data privacy matters. We believe that this resolution is a valuable step towards protecting your students’ privacy and ensuring the security of your district's data. Should you have additional questions regarding the ROC or this resolution, please contact your local Regional Information Center. Please return a signed copy of this document to Lower Hudson Regional Information Center (LHRIC) by September 1, 2026. On November 1, 2026, access rights within the Resource Registry used to manage the Data Privacy Agreement (DPA) will be updated as necessary. Access rights will not change for those that continue to participate. For entities that choose not to participate, access will be adjusted to align with district preferences. Specifically, non-participating entities will no longer have the ability to submit requests to initiate negotiation of new DPAs or to use the Exhibit E functionality to subscribe to agreements that have already been negotiated using the centralized and standardized structure. These adjustments ensure that system access and permissions align with district choices and participation status. Sincerely, Ellen J. McDonnell, Executive Director & Raheela Baig, Coordinator, DPSS Lower Hudson Regional Information Center