What Schools Need from IT Infrastructure Today

What Do Schools Actually Need From Their Technology Infrastructure?

The student data risks, the print management gaps, and what we see most often when we work with schools for the first time.

Schools are among the most data-sensitive organizations we work with.

Student records. Special education files. Financial aid data. Staff personnel information. Discipline and health records. Each of these carries specific legal protections, and each of them lives in your technology systems, often managed by a team that is stretched thin and focused on education rather than IT.

Novatech works with more than 750 private schools, charter schools, and educational institutions across the Southeast. This guide answers the questions we hear most often from administrators who know they have technology gaps but are not sure where to start.

From the Field

We have worked with schools ranging from small single-campus private academies to charter networks with multiple locations across Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia. The compliance challenges are consistent, but the most frequent and costly gaps are almost always in the same three places: network architecture, print management, and student data access controls.

What Data Privacy Laws Apply to Schools, and What Do They Require From Technology?

Quick Answer

What federal laws govern student data privacy and what do they require?

Three federal laws shape most schools’ data privacy obligations. FERPA protects student education records and governs who can access them and how they can be shared. COPPA applies when schools use third-party apps that collect data from children under 13. IDEA requires strict confidentiality for special education records including IEPs. Each of these has direct technology implications: access controls, data sharing agreements with vendors, and retention and destruction policies.

Most states have also added their own student privacy laws. Tennessee’s Student Online Personal Information Protection Act, Georgia’s student data privacy provisions, and Virginia’s COPPA-aligned protections each add requirements on top of federal law. The practical effect is that a school using a third-party classroom app needs to have a signed data processing agreement with that vendor and understand exactly what student data it collects and how it is stored.

What Are the Most Common Technology Gaps We Find in Schools?

The Copier Hard Drive Nobody Thought About

Every networked copier stores images of documents it processes on an internal hard drive. In a school environment, that includes student assessments, IEPs, financial aid documents, and disciplinary records. When the lease ends and the device goes back to the vendor, that hard drive goes with it.

Quick Answer

What should a school require when returning a leased copier?

Every school should require, in writing, a certified hard drive destruction or overwrite as a condition of any device return or end-of-lease agreement. Request a certificate of data destruction and keep it with your compliance records. This applies to copiers, printers, and any other networked device that processed student records. Without this, your FERPA obligations may extend to data sitting on a device in a vendor’s refurbishment facility.

From the Field

This is the gap that surprises administrators most when we raise it. Most schools have never thought about what happens to the copier hard drive at end of lease. We have worked with schools in Tennessee and Georgia that were able to add this requirement to existing lease agreements with a simple written addendum once they understood the issue.

A School Network That Was Not Designed for Today’s Mix of Devices

Most school networks were designed for a specific number of devices and a specific mix of uses. That mix has changed significantly as student devices, administrative workstations, security cameras, HVAC controls, and guest networks have been added over time.

The result is often a flat network where student devices, staff computers, and administrative systems containing sensitive records are all on the same segment. In a school with FERPA obligations, this is a compliance risk.

• Student devices should be on a separate network segment from staff and administrative systems
• The segment containing student records should have the most restricted access
• Guest Wi-Fi for parents and visitors should be isolated from all internal systems
• Any IoT devices, cameras, HVAC controls, door systems, should be on their own segment

Third-Party Apps With No Formal Review Process

Most schools use dozens of third-party applications for instruction, communication, and administration. Many were adopted informally, often by individual teachers, without a formal review of what data they collect or how it is protected.

• Maintain an inventory of every app used by students, including apps adopted by individual teachers
• Every vendor that collects student data should have a signed Data Processing Agreement
• Apps that are no longer in use should have access revoked and student data deleted
• New apps should go through a brief security review before classroom deployment

The Summer Security Gap

Schools face a predictable vulnerability window every year: the transition between school years. Staff turn over. IT attention shifts to facilities and construction projects. Security patches get deferred. And attackers know it.

The FBI reported that education was one of the most targeted sectors for ransomware in 2023. Attacks that hit in August, two weeks before the first day of school, are particularly damaging because recovery competes directly with opening week preparation.

• Departing staff accounts should be disabled on their last day, not when someone gets around to it
• Summer is the right window to apply deferred security patches, not skip them
• New staff onboarding should include security awareness training before system access is granted
• Student accounts from graduated classes should be disabled on a documented schedule

How Should a School Think About Its Print Environment?

Quick Answer

What is the right approach to print management for a school?

Most schools operate printers and copiers with no central visibility into cost, volume, or supply levels. Managed print services changes this by providing automatic supply replenishment, proactive service, and reporting by device or department. For schools, the most immediate benefit is usually operational: teachers stop hunting for toner, devices get serviced before they fail mid-semester, and the business manager gets actual data on print costs rather than estimates.

Color printing is typically the largest per-page cost in a school environment. A print policy that limits color output to appropriate uses, marketing materials, parent communications, presentations, rather than routine handouts, typically reduces print costs significantly without affecting instruction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does FERPA apply to private schools?

FERPA applies to schools that receive federal funding, including many private schools that participate in federal programs. Private schools that receive no federal funding are technically exempt from FERPA, but most states have their own student privacy laws that cover them. Additionally, many private school accreditation standards include student data privacy requirements. The safest practice is to apply FERPA-level protections regardless of whether you are technically required to.

What should a school do if a vendor app is found to have a data breach?

Contact the vendor immediately to understand the scope of the breach and whether student data was involved. If student data was affected, your state’s data breach notification law likely requires you to notify affected families within a specific timeframe, typically 30 to 60 days. Document everything. Review your Data Processing Agreement with the vendor for breach notification obligations. And evaluate whether to continue using the vendor.

How do we handle a teacher who wants to use a new app in their classroom?

The simplest approach is a brief review checklist: Does the app collect student data? If yes, is it COPPA compliant? Does the vendor have a signed data processing agreement with the school? Has the school’s technology coordinator reviewed the app? This does not need to be a lengthy process. A one-page checklist completed before adoption prevents most problems.

What is the cost difference between managed print services and buying supplies ourselves?

Over a three-year period, most schools find that managed print services costs less than self-managed printing when you account for the actual cost of supplies, the time staff spend managing supply orders, emergency service calls, and the productivity cost of devices that are down waiting for service. The predictability of a fixed monthly cost is also easier to budget and explain to a board than variable supply and repair expenses.

Novatech Serves Businesses Across the Southeast

We have local offices and teams in major markets across the region. You work with people who know your market and are never more than a call away.

City	City	City
Nashville, TN novatech.net/locations/nashville-hq	Dallas, TX novatech.net/locations/dallas	Atlanta, GA novatech.net/locations/atlanta
Memphis, TN novatech.net/locations/memphis	Chattanooga, TN novatech.net/locations/chattanooga	Virginia Beach, VA novatech.net/locations/virginia-beach

 

Visit novatech.net/locations to find your nearest office.

About Novatech

Novatech is a managed office technology provider serving businesses across the Southeast and beyond. We manage more than 75,000 devices and support clients across IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud solutions, copiers, printers, and document software, all under one roof.

To learn more about how Novatech serves the education industry, visit novatech.net https://novatech.net/who-we-serve/education-public-and-private or call your local Novatech office.