Creating a safe and supportive environment is foundational to student engagement and academic success. Research underscores that students are more likely to learn, take risks, and participate fully when they feel physically, emotionally, and psychologically secure. This section supports Element 5: Safety of the Tutoring Quality Standards and is organized into two areas:
- 7.1 Implementing Safety Protocols: This section covers tutor and student safety protocols, background check processes, safety training systems, and practices for ongoing review and accountability.
- 7.2 Ensuring Data Privacy and Security: This section addresses building data privacy policies, training tutors in responsible data practices, ensuring secure virtual programming, and establishing ongoing monitoring systems.
Research Insights
Research provides the following guidance to create effective tutoring programs:
7.1 Implementing Safety Protocols
- Researchers have not specifically studied the importance of implementing safety protocols as part of tutoring programs. However, there is a consensus among educators that for programs to succeed, student safety must be a pillar of operations. Research shows when students feel safe and valued, they are more likely to take intellectual risks and participate actively in the classroom. A safe and supportive school environment enables students to engage more fully in learning, as they are less likely to fear judgment or punishment for making errors. Additionally, a positive sense of belonging is linked to moderately higher academic achievement, as well as greater engagement and participation in school activities. It is logical that these findings apply to high-impact tutoring programs.
7.2 Ensuring Data Privacy and Security
- Data privacy and security in tutoring programs are essential to protect students’ personally identifiable information (PII), ensure legal compliance, and build trust with families and schools. Programs must follow federal laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which governs the use and disclosure of education records, and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which applies to online tools used with children under 13. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) reinforces these protections by requiring state and local education agencies — and by extension, their tutoring partners — to implement secure data practices and prohibit unauthorized federal access to student data. There is a consensus from the National Student Support Accelerator Tutoring Quality Improvement System (TQIS) Advisory Group that tutoring programs cannot operate without making data privacy a pillar of their operations.
Read the Full Research
Federal Trade Commission. (n.d.). Children's online privacy protection rule (COPPA). https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule-coppa
Korpershoek, H., Canrinus, E. T., Fokkens-Bruinsma, M., & de Boer, H. (2019). The relationships between school belonging and students’ motivational, social-emotional, behavioural, and academic outcomes in secondary education: a meta-analytic review. Research Papers in Education, 35(6), 641–680. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2019.1615116
Soutter, M., & Clark, S. (2021). Building a culture of intellectual risk-taking: Isolating the pedagogical elements of the Harkness Method. Journal of Education, 203(3), 508-519. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220574211037747
U.S. Department of Education. (2025). Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/laws-preschool-grade-12-education/every-student-succeeds-act-essa
U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Protecting Student Privacy. https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/