Linux

I'm not commenting to pick on you but because I think it's really important that people understand the details of laws so that they can make informed choices. People often think they have more rights or protections than they do, and they might not make the same choices if they knew otherwise.

If you are referring to FERPA, the decision about whether an email is an education record depends on the content and the context for which it is used. I don't think it would hold that all emails from an educational account are educational records. ( https://www.aalrr.com/EdLawConnectBlog/a-reminder-that-emails-may-be-education-records )

From the above and specific to whether an email itself can be a record (when there was a paper copy on file)

The court held the electronic messages themselves were not “education records” for purposes of FERPA because, while they related to the student, they were not “maintained” by the educational institution.

(Please note: "the decision was unpublished and therefore cannot be cited.")

Getting a little more specific: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/subtitle-A/part-99/subpart-D/section-99.31

An educational agency or institution may disclose personally identifiable information from an education record of a student without the consent required by § 99.30 if the disclosure meets one or more of the following conditions:

B) A contractor, consultant, volunteer, or other party to whom an agency or institution has outsourced institutional services or functions may be considered a school official under this paragraph provided that the outside party—

(1) Performs an institutional service or function for which the agency or institution would otherwise use employees;

(2) Is under the direct control of the agency or institution with respect to the use and maintenance of education records; and

(3) Is subject to the requirements of § 99.33(a) governing the use and redisclosure of personally identifiable information from education records.

So having access to and using the information in the emails is not necessarily a violation so long as the personally identifiable information is not redisclosed.

Schools have a duty to ensure that the access is for "legitimate educational interests" which is subjective but I could see email tools or copilot being argued as meeting that.

I guess we won't know until someone challenges it 😉