Back to school--an annual ritual that includes buying new notebooks, packing lunches, coordinating transportation, and filling out forms: registration forms, health forms, permission slips, and emergency contact forms, to name a few. Many school forms require personal and, sometimes, sensitive information. In the wrong hands, this information can…

Public reporting makes data about schools and districts--including enrollment, student performance, teacher effectiveness, and more--available to the public. These data never include information that could be used to identify individuals and are critical to meeting the information needs of parents, educators, administrators, policymakers, and…