How the SAFE Initiative and SAFEin are designed to protect student privacy under federal law.
Last updated: May 2026
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. It applies to schools and districts that receive funding from the U.S. Department of Education. Under FERPA, schools may not disclose personally identifiable information from student education records to third parties without parental consent, with certain exceptions.
SAFEin was built from the start with FERPA alignment as a design requirement, not an afterthought. The core principle: no student-identifiable information enters SAFEin, period.
Educators who use SAFEin describe situations in general terms. They might write: "A student is having a hard time transitioning between classes and has a history of behavioral challenges." They do not write: "Marcus, a seventh-grader in room 212 with IEP #4823, is having a hard time."
This is policy, not enforcement. SAFEin does not technically block educators from entering names. Schools that sign the SAFE Initiative participation agreement acknowledge this expectation and agree to communicate it to all staff who use the tool.
SAFEin does not collect, store, or process: student names, student ID numbers, dates of birth, grades, attendance records, discipline records, IEP information, 504 plans, or any other data that would constitute an education record under FERPA.
SAFEin does not integrate with, query, or receive data from:
The only data flowing into SAFEin is what an educator types directly into the tool during a session.
Educator input is processed by an AI model provided by Anthropic, PBC. The input sent to Anthropic's API is the general-terms description the educator typed. Because educators do not enter personally identifiable student information, the text sent to Anthropic does not constitute student education record data under FERPA.
Anthropic does not retain this data for training purposes under their enterprise API terms.
Participating schools are responsible for:
These expectations are outlined in the SAFE Initiative participation agreement and reviewed during the staff training workshop.
If your district's privacy officer or legal counsel has questions about how SAFEin handles data, we welcome the conversation. We can provide technical documentation on request.
Email: SAFE@bbhri.com
Phone: 401-773-2931