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A local mom is on a mission to push schools to unhook from technology and reevaluate device-based education. Photo: iStock
Key takeaways for parents:
- Local mom and author Emily Cherkin is leading a class action lawsuit against PowerSchool, claiming the company collects and profits from sensitive student data without proper consent.
- PowerSchool, used by 75 percent of school districts, has faced multiple data breaches, but defends its practices, stating it complies with federal and state privacy laws.
- Families can protect student data by limiting data-sharing, freezing children’s credit, using strong passwords, watching for scams and pushing for stronger privacy protections from local school districts.
Emily Cherkin is sick of watching EdTech infiltrate classrooms at kids’ expense. The Seattle mother of two and former middle-school teacher says she worries for both students and teachers. “I have profound concern for what I see as a growing threat to the profession [of teaching] in the form of educational technology or EdTech,” she said in a March 2025 presentation. She cites a 2022 Internet Safety Labs report finding that 96 percent of EdTech apps sell children’s data to third parties. “EdTech is just Big Tech in a sweater vest.”
Cherkin, author of “The Screentime Solution,” calls herself the “vanguard of the fight for our children against the digitization, commodification and gamification of childhood.” Her mission: push schools to unhook from technology and reevaluate device-based education.
These days, Cherkin is also the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against PowerSchool, the EdTech giant that owns Schoology Learning, Naviance and other platforms. These learning management systems serve as dashboards for assignments, course management, progress and communication. For many students, use of these platforms is mandatory. But Cherkin and others claim they collect sensitive data on children and sell it to third parties for a profit.
The lawsuit
In May 2024, Cherkin filed a lawsuit against San Francisco-based PowerSchool, which says it serves 90 percent of all school districts by enrollment numbers and 75 percent of districts overall.
The suit accuses PowerSchool of:
- Collecting and monetizing data on millions of school-age children and their parents
- Selling that data to more than 100 third-party “partners”
- Predicting and selling information about kids’ futures, such as college trajectories
- Failing to provide enough information for informed consent
- Engaging in conduct that “harms children and parents”
The suit asserts that “at minimum, PowerSchool’s public disclosures mention various information that PowerSchool may collect from and about its users, including dozens of personal records, contact information, demographic information, disciplinary and behavioral information, medical information, user communications, user-device information, higher-education information and career-related information.” Because the suit is in progress, neither Cherkin nor her attorneys would comment for this story.
Cherkin’s case is not the only one against PowerSchool. In June 2023, a student and parent sued both Chicago Public Schools and PowerSchool, alleging Naviance collected sensitive data and violated privacy rights. Since then, numerous other lawsuits have been filed.
PowerSchool’s response
In July 2024, PowerSchool filed a motion to dismiss, saying Cherkin’s complaint “reads like a book report that simply summarizes horror stories about surveillance capitalism, cybercrimes and targeted marketing and ‘datafication.’”
In a statement to ParentMap, PowerSchool defended its practices, saying it complies with federal privacy laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), as well as state-level regulations including California’s Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) and similar laws in other states. The company said it acts solely as a data processor on behalf of schools and districts, continues to invest in new security technologies, and collaborates with regulators and privacy experts to safeguard student information. PowerSchool also stressed that protecting student data is central to how it designs its products. “The claims in these complaints are unfounded, inaccurate and misrepresent how our technology works and how we protect student data,” the company said.
Security breaches
While data privacy lawsuits continue, PowerSchool is also facing heat for multiple data breaches, including a December 2024 breach believed to have exposed sensitive data of tens of millions of students, staff and families.
Most recently, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit alleging that 880,000 student and educator records were compromised in a data breach. Paxton says he “brings this action in the public interest to stop PowerSchool’s deceptive trade practices and hold them accountable for their data privacy and security failures.”
Paxton wrote in the lawsuit, “On information and belief, while PowerSchool grew its user base, gained influence and benefited from its contracts with Texas school districts, Texas students and teachers had to provide the company with personal information and trust that PowerSchool would keep that information safe. … Instead, PowerSchool reaped the benefits of Texans’ data while failing to implement sufficient privacy and security practices.”
As for Cherkin’s case, Judge James Donato issued a split ruling in March. Claims of statutory deceit, unfair competition and statutory larceny were dismissed (with permission to amend and refile). But privacy and unjust enrichment claims were allowed to proceed.
Donato wrote that “the complaint amply alleges that PowerSchool collects, for its own commercial benefit, data about public-school kids from information that the students share as part of their legally required education,” and that “doing so without parental notice or consent, as is alleged, plausibly describes conduct that is ‘highly offensive to a reasonable person and … constitutes an egregious breach of the social norms.’”
What parents can do
Despite concerns and pending lawsuits, many districts continue to use PowerSchool platforms, an indication of how deeply entrenched these EdTech platforms have become. To illustrate the painful position districts are in: In May, the Memphis-Shelby County school board unanimously voted to renew its $2.4 million contract with PowerSchool — while at the same time participating in a lawsuit against them.
What’s a parent to do? Some advocates want parents to become more aware of the rights they do have over their children’s data, such as “to receive and understand those products’ terms of service, and to decline those terms of service or revoke your consent at any time.” In fact, some parents choose to decline the school-supplied student laptop altogether.
If you’re worried about your child’s data, there are a few things you can do:
- Opt out where possible. Some data-sharing and directory information can be limited if you submit a written request to your district.
- Monitor for identity theft. Consider a free credit freeze for your child with the major credit bureaus; it prevents accounts from being opened in their name.
- Use strong parent/guardian passwords. Secure your own PowerSchool and related school accounts with unique, complex passwords and multifactor authentication if available.
- Stay alert for scams. Be wary of emails, texts or calls that use school info to trick families into giving away more data.
- Push for better protections. Contact your school board or PTA to advocate for stronger district-level data security and transparency.
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