Education

Student Data Stays on Your
School's Machines.

Teachers, counselors, and administrators are using ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot every day, pasting student names, grades, IEP documents, and disciplinary records into prompts. Shield sits on your school's machines and stops student data from ever reaching an external AI model. No cloud. No vendor access. Just a local proxy that redacts sensitive data before it leaves your network.

See Shield for Education See Data Redaction in Action

Quick Answer

Shield for Education is a local desktop application that stops student records, grades, IEP data, and directory information from ever leaving your school's computers, before that data reaches ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or any AI model. It runs on your existing machines, requires no cloud infrastructure, and helps schools meet FERPA, COPPA, and PPRA requirements without changing how teachers and administrators use AI tools.

FERPA

Federal student privacy law since 1974

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student education records at any school receiving U.S. Department of Education funds. Schools need written consent before disclosing personally identifiable information from education records, and violations can result in loss of federal funding. When a teacher pastes student data into an AI prompt, that data leaves the school's controlled environment.

Source: 20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99

3+ Frameworks

Laws governing student data in AI use

Schools and EdTech companies must navigate FERPA, COPPA (for students under 13), PPRA (surveys and data collection), and IDEA (special education records). State student privacy laws add additional requirements, over 40 states have enacted their own student data privacy legislation. Each framework imposes obligations on how student data is collected, stored, and shared.

Multiple statutes, FERPA, COPPA, PPRA, IDEA, state laws

Zero

Student data leaves your school network

Shield runs locally on your school's machines, no cloud processing, no vendor data access. Student records, IEP documents, grades, and directory information never reach external AI providers. The redaction mapping stays on your machine, inside your district's network boundary.

Shield operates within your network boundary

Student data exposure through AI is a FERPA compliance risk

When a teacher pastes a student's grades, attendance records, or IEP details into an AI prompt, that data leaves your school's controlled environment and arrives at an external provider's servers. Under FERPA, schools must protect the privacy of student education records, and that obligation doesn't disappear just because an employee is using a third-party AI tool. Shield eliminates this vector entirely: sensitive student information never leaves your network, so it never creates a FERPA or COPPA compliance exposure.

Interactive Demo

What Student Data Looks Like in AI Prompts

Three real-world scenarios where school staff send sensitive student data to AI models. Click each tab to see the raw prompt with identifiable information, and how Shield redacts it before it leaves your network.

Teacher Using AI to Draft Progress Reports

Before Shield

Write a progress report for student Emily Rodriguez, Grade 10, Student ID 2024-08821. Current grades: English 10 to 87% (B+), Algebra II, 72% (C-), AP Biology, 94% (A). Attendance: 3 unexcused absences this semester (Oct 12, Oct 28, Nov 3). Parent contact: Maria Rodriguez, maria.rodriguez@email.com, 312-555-0142. IEP status: 504 Plan for extended time on tests. Notes: Emily has been disengaged in class since mid-October, suggest a parent-teacher conference.

After Shield

Write a progress report for student [STUDENT_NAME], Grade [GRADE_LEVEL], Student ID [STUDENT_ID]. Current grades: [COURSE], [GRADE], [COURSE], [GRADE], [COURSE], [GRADE]. Attendance: [NUMBER] unexcused absences this semester ([DATES]). Parent contact: [PARENT_NAME], [EMAIL], [PHONE]. IEP status: [ACCOMMODATION_PLAN]. Notes: [STUDENT_NAME] has been disengaged in class since mid-October, suggest a parent-teacher conference.

Detected (8 matches)

PII, NameEmily Rodriguez

PII, ID2024-08821

PII, NameMaria Rodriguez

PII, Emailmaria.rodriguez@email.com

PII, Phone312-555-0142

Sensitive, Education87% (B+)

Sensitive, Education72% (C-)

Sensitive, IEP504 Plan

Compliance

How Shield Maps to Education Privacy Laws

Schools operate under multiple overlapping student privacy frameworks. Shield's local proxy architecture provides a single technical control that supports compliance across FERPA, COPPA, PPRA, and IDEA, without adding cloud dependencies to your data governance scope.

Framework	Scope	Key Requirement	How Shield Helps
FERPA	Student education records (K-12 and post-secondary)	Written consent required before disclosing PII from education records; school officials exception requires direct institutional control	Redacts student PII, names, IDs, grades, disciplinary records, before prompts reach external AI providers. Student data never leaves the school's controlled environment, satisfying the consent requirement.
COPPA	Children under 13, online data collection	Verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13; schools may consent on behalf of parents for educational purposes only	Ensures under-13 student data is redacted before reaching external AI tools that are not COPPA-compliant. Adds a protective layer for classrooms using AI tools that weren't designed for children's data.
PPRA	Surveys, analyses, and evaluations in schools	Parental notice and opt-out rights for surveys collecting sensitive information; applies to instructional materials used in connection with ED-funded programs	When AI tools are used to analyze or evaluate student data, including surveys administered through AI. Shield prevents exposure of protected survey categories (political beliefs, income, religious practices) to external providers.
IDEA	Special education records and IEP documentation	Confidentiality provisions at 34 CFR 300.610–300.626 protect IEP records, assessment data, and personally identifiable information about children with disabilities	Detects and redacts IEP-specific data, medical diagnoses, assessment scores, provider licenses, Medicaid IDs, ensuring IDEA-protected information stays within the district's authorized personnel boundary.

Architecture

Student Data Never Leaves Your School Network

Shield runs as a local proxy on your school's machines. When a teacher, counselor, or administrator sends a prompt to an AI model, Shield intercepts it, redacts all student PII, grades, and protected records, and only then forwards the clean prompt to the external LLM. The redaction mapping stays on your machine, inside your district's network boundary.

Local Installation

Install Shield on any Mac, Windows, or Linux machine. No cloud infrastructure, no vendor data access, no student data leaves your network.

One Environment Variable

Set SHIELD_PROXY_URL and every AI call from that machine flows through Shield automatically. Zero code changes to your existing tools, Canvas, PowerSchool, or Google Classroom.

Full Audit Trail

Every redaction event is logged with a cryptographic hash. Prove to auditors and state education departments exactly what data was caught and when, with tamper-evident integrity.

Configurable Policies

Choose which data categories to redact, PII, grades, IEP/504 data. Add custom patterns for your district's student ID schemes. Run in audit-only mode to validate coverage first.

FAQ

Common Questions

No, and that's the point. Shield runs locally on your school's machines, not as a cloud service. Under FERPA, schools may disclose PII from education records to school officials with legitimate educational interest, but those officials must be under the direct control of the educational agency. Because Shield operates entirely within your own infrastructure and never transmits data to Purfect Labs servers, it functions as a technical safeguard, not a separate entity requiring school official designation. Your student data stays on your network the entire time.

FERPA permits schools to release directory information (name, address, phone, photos, activities) without consent, but only if parents/eligible students are given notice and an opportunity to opt out. Shield gives you fine-grained control: you can configure it to allow directory information through while redacting non-directory PII like SSNs, student IDs, grades, and disciplinary records. If your school has a blanket opt-out policy for certain students, Shield's policy engine can enforce those rules automatically on a per-student or per-grade basis.

Shield operates at the API layer. It sits between your AI client and the LLM provider, not inside any specific LMS. As long as the AI request flows through Shield's local proxy, student data is caught regardless of which platform the teacher or administrator used to copy it. This means Shield works with Canvas, PowerSchool, Google Classroom, Infinite Campus, Blackboard, and any other LMS, with zero integration work.

Yes. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. When teachers or school staff use AI tools that involve student data, Shield ensures that under-13 student PII is redacted before it reaches external AI providers. This is especially important because many AI tools are not COPPA-compliant. They weren't designed for use with children's data. Shield adds a layer of protection between your classroom and the AI provider.

Absolutely. IEP and 504 Plan documents contain some of the most sensitive data in a student's file: medical diagnoses, psychological assessment scores, behavioral intervention plans, medication schedules, and provider details. This data is protected under FERPA, IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), and often HIPAA when medical providers are involved. Shield's filter packs include patterns for IEP-specific data, assessment names and scores, service frequencies, provider license numbers, Medicaid IDs. That go beyond standard PII detection.

Shield installs on any Mac, Windows, or Linux machine. For district-wide deployment, your IT team can push Shield via existing device management tools (MDM) or group policy. Every machine gets the same policy configuration, and audit logs can be centrally collected. Shield supports enterprise configuration management so you can deploy consistent data protection policies across every teacher laptop, administrator workstation, and front-office computer, without touching a single app or LMS.

Shield for Healthcare AI

Protect PHI under HIPAA, clinical notes, billing data, and patient communications.

Shield for Financial Services

Keep account numbers, SSNs, and portfolio data safe under PCI DSS and GLBA.

Shield for Legal Tech

Protect attorney-client privileged data, case strategy, and M&A documents.

Ready to Protect Your Students' Data?

Shield installs in minutes. Your students' grades, IEP documents, and personal information stay on your school's machines, where FERPA, COPPA, and your community expect them to be.

Talk to Our Team How Shield Works

Last updated: July 15, 2026

Student Data Stays on YourSchool's Machines.