Data Use & Privacy Policy

The Laboratory Schools (“Lab”) deeply values the trust parents place in us regarding their information, and the information of their children. We continually evaluate our data practices in order to ensure your information is responsibly used to provide the best service to you and your children. This page is intended to help you feel empowered and informed about your information, your child’s information, and how it’s used. If at any point you have questions, please email the director of information management, who serves as Lab’s data officer.

Information Collected and Created

Lab collects a variety of contact information to communicate with our families, demographic information in order to best serve our community, academic information which is central to our work, health information to comply with state law and to serve our community, and financial information in order to fulfill our business obligations. Lab partners with vendors of services which also can collect some data on website or service use, and we share only the identifying information necessary for those services to perform as our families expect. Lab rigorously evaluates each vendor’s Terms of Service to ensure that only the minimum amount of data needed is requested and transmitted, that it is held and processed in a secure fashion, that we get it back if our relationship with the vendor ends, and that they destroy it from their systems when it is no longer needed. We expect our vendors to treat your information as well as we do, we communicate that expectation clearly, and we require that they perform to our expectations of security and privacy. Each of our vendors have statements similar to this about what information they collect and how it is used.

Your information is requested and generated in phases at Lab. Families apply for admission, and that requires certain pieces of information. Accepted families then matriculate, and that step requires additional information. As students attend school, performance and behavioral information is documented.  When a student graduates, additional information is created and collected over time. Families have rights to access all the information related to them. After a student leaves, those rights remain. When a student graduates, additional information is documented over time. Below, we describe what information is collected and how we use it in these phases. If you have any questions, please email the director of information management.

Admission

Families interested in attending Lab are asked to provide contact information and basic identifying information for the children for whom they are exploring enrollment. If a family chooses to apply, Lab requires name information for the child and at least one guardian, contact information for the guardian, as well as date of birth and sex information for the child. Additionally, previous academic information for the child applying, if applicable, is required. Lab requests that families volunteer additional demographic information, and this information is later analyzed to understand how different groups of people come to Lab.

Matriculation

When a student is accepted and agrees to attend, Lab collects legal name, date of birth, and sex information of the child, in accordance with internal policy and Illinois state law. Lab collects name, contact, and basic demographic information for at least one guardian. We also collect mandatory health information, depending on the grade level of the child. 

This information is the minimum amount we need in order to fulfill our obligations to our families, our accrediting institutions, and the State of Illinois. We transmit the minimum amount of identifying information needed for our vendors to provide the services our families expect, usually name information, but sometimes date of birth and sex information (for example, for athletics services).

We request a variety of other demographic information on the child and parents. That information is analyzed in order to understand our students and families, it is provided in aggregate form to accreditation institutions and to the State of Illinois, and minimally required data is transmitted to partners and vendors to provide critical services to Lab. Most commonly, this is parent/guardian information provided to University partner offices for safety purposes or development purposes. We do not transmit voluntarily provided student demographic data to any partner or vendor in a method that allows for the identification of an individual student.

Our partnerships and vendor relationships are continually evaluated to ensure the data provided is only that which is required for the service provision, that it is securely stored and processed, and that we retain full ownership over that data.

While Enrolled

During a student’s time at Lab, several types of information are created. This includes academic progress information, attendance information, class enrollment information, health logging information, computing use information, extra-curricular activity information, and social/behavioral information. Each of these types are created in order to serve our students and families. 

Only class enrollment information and, for students in high school, aggregated academic progress information (in the form of Grade Point Average) is transmitted to our vendors. We transmit that information in order to allow those services to perform as our families expect. All other information is stored in a secure manner and under the control of the Lab. We do not transmit any other information generated during the enrollment process to any partner or vendor in a method that allows for the identification of an individual student.

Graduation and Withdrawal

When a student graduates, Lab continues to use and update contact information in conjunction with the University of Chicago’s Alumni Relations & Development (“ARD”) office. The control of that information passes from Lab to ARD. The enrollment information is updated, Lab collects enrollment information regarding our student’s choice of continuing education, if applicable, and the record is closed. If a student withdraws before graduation, enrollment information is updated, and thereafter, the record is closed.

Storage and Deletion

Lab keeps academic and basic identity information indefinitely for purposes of records provision should a student request it in the future. 82 years after the date of graduation, a student’s academic record is available for academic study through the Special Collections Library at the University of Chicago. Lab also evaluates the value of information stored after a given period of time, and is currently evaluating best practices around data deletion. We intend to keep information only so long as it is needed, and once it no longer is needed, to delete it securely. 

Lab coordinates with University IT Services in the evaluation of our data storage and security procedures, and we follow industry standards for the protection of all sensitive information. When the appropriate level of security is in question, we default to storing it in our most secure environment.

Granting and Revoking Permission

Families grant permission for Lab to collect this information when they inquire about admission, when they apply for admission, and when they matriculate. Parents and guardians can revoke permission for any data not critical to the fulfillment of a contract or data not critical to the provision of services at Lab. To revoke such permissions, please email the director of information management, who serves as our data officer.

Reviewing and Removing Information

Families have a right to review nearly all the information described above, and to obtain much of it. If you wish to review or remove information that Lab collects, please email the email the director of information management, who serves as our data officer.

Limits of Lab’s Data Control

Lab critically engages with a broad academic community, and we commonly connect people within our community to other organizations. Lab does not evaluate data collection or use of such connections where we do not require participation.

Document Review and Correction

This document is continually reviewed to ensure we are providing accurate, helpful information. If you find any information confusing, contradictory, or incorrect, email the director of information management, who serves as our data officer. We are happy to provide clarification, and are grateful to be alerted to erroneous information.

This policy was last updated in July, 2021.
This document was prepared by Brent LaRowe, Director of Information Management.