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AI in Schools / United States

Children’s online privacy: 2025 final amendments

The COPPA amendments limit covered operators’ retention of children’s personal information and require a written retention policy. The rule has distinct effective and compliance dates.

Federal Trade Commission · 16 CFR Part 312 / 2025-05904

Final ruleThe rule took effect June 23, 2025. The general compliance date is April 22, 2026.

Who and what it covers

The rule covers websites and online services that meet its definitions and collect personal information from children under 13. It does not cover every school or every AI product.

Policy provisions

  1. Student data & AI training · Vendors / operators

    Covered operators may retain children’s information only as long as reasonably necessary for its specific collection purpose. [1]

  2. Vendor obligations · Vendors / operators

    Covered children’s information may not be retained indefinitely. [1]

  3. Vendor obligations · Vendors / operators

    Operators must maintain a written data-retention policy. [1]

  4. Procedural history · Vendors / operators

    The amended rule took effect June 23, 2025. [1]

  5. Procedural history · Vendors / operators

    General compliance was due April 22, 2026, with the specified safe-harbor exceptions. [1]

What to check next

Review the official document and ask your district which local policy and approved-tool list apply.

Sources & Notes

COPPA is not specific to AI. This file includes it as federal privacy context for covered services used in education. The general compliance date governs date searches for the retention provisions shown here. Other provisions may have different schedules.

  1. Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 76 (Tuesday, April 22, 2025)

    Federal Trade Commission · Final regulatory text, §312.10 · Source checked October 6, 2026

    An operator of a website or online service shall retain personal information collected online from a …
    Evidence identity
    Text fingerprint (SHA-256)
    c08fbb964d1c88ae30a6d92e301a907e0205b41cf0fb1b66e1b7e535259e005a
    Representation
    Normalized text extracted from the retained official page
    Delivery host
    www.govinfo.gov
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Document history

2025 final rule. This is the first source-checked version admitted to this file. We did not reconstruct earlier versions from amendment references or changed URLs.

Reviewed October 6, 2026 · Link to this verified version.

Cite this record

Formative Spaces, “Children’s online privacy: 2025 final amendments | United States,” AI in Schools, release 2026-10-06-875e416b4116, reviewed October 6, 2026. https://www.formativespaces.com/topics/classroom-ai/records/coppa-2025-amendments