Schools are tracking parents and students around the clock — and most families have no idea it’s happening.
A major Supreme Court ruling just exposed the surveillance state hiding inside America’s K-12 schools, and parents need to know what’s at stake.
The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Chatrie v. United States focused on whether law enforcement accessing Google Location History data constituted a Fourth Amendment search. The court ruled it does.
“An individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone’s location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information from a third-party tech company.”
The court explained that Location History “tracks and tracks and tracks” the device and the user carrying it. The location data collected provides the government “a virtual panopticon with which to scrutinize its citizens’ activities” — and thus qualifies for Fourth Amendment protections.
Fourth Amendment searches require probable cause. Law enforcement must detail that probable cause in a warrant application, get approval from the correct judicial authority, and conduct the search within the parameters outlined in the warrant.
But schools are doing this without warrants.
Schools collect location data on students through education technology programs and apps. Most parents have no idea the extent to which their own location data is collected and used.
One example: the Thomson Reuters CLEAR software, which allows designated school district personnel to “access license plate data and develop pattern of life information” on students and families.
The software markets itself as a solution to help school personnel save time verifying student addresses. But the capabilities go far beyond address verification, with features such as alert functions to allow district personnel to “get notified immediately when any relevant information changes with a student.”
These expansive surveillance functions are not surprising, given the company’s own description of the product as a “powerful online investigation software” with applications in law enforcement and investigative financial services.
Parents are not informed of the intense level of location surveillance being conducted on them, their student, and their family members.
The CLEAR searches are not being conducted by law enforcement personnel, but by school administrators. No warrants are needed. No uniform compliance protections are in place.
Programs such as Google Workspace for Education and many other education tech applications collect student location data based on tracking and storing school-issued device locations. These devices are often carried by students outside the classroom — to sports practices, work, coffee dates, and ultimately to their private homes.
This essentially mimics the “virtual panopticon” referenced in Chatrie as it captures the student’s pattern of life via their location history — which is fully accessible to designated school administrators at all times.
Even as students have reduced Fourth Amendment protections at school, they still have them — and they certainly have them outside the school premises.
The tension between these K-12 education programs and Chatrie is bound to create a stir as parents and their students begin questioning these surveillance practices and asserting their Fourth Amendment constitutional rights.
The Supreme Court just handed parents the legal ammunition to fight back against school surveillance overreach.
Truth in Education offers an opt-out form covering a variety of sensitive subjects along with instructions on how to file it with your child’s school. Parents can visit the organization’s website or contact info@truthineducation.org for help enforcing opt-outs or with questions about school district data collection capabilities.
The charges remain allegations. The case has not been proven in court.
