For Universities, Colleges + K-12 Districts
Your institution holds student records, financial-aid files, and federally funded research, and a single breach or a failed campus-safety review can cost you funding, headlines, and trust you spent decades earning. The work is scattered: privacy in one office, financial aid in another, campus safety in a third, research security in a fourth, each keeping its own spreadsheet for its own regulator. RiskWatch pulls every program onto one platform, captures the evidence once, and has the audit package ready before the reviewer asks. (Covers FERPA, GLBA Safeguards, Clery, Title IX, and NIST 800-171 research CUI.)
Trusted by universities, colleges + K-12 districts managing FERPA, GLBA Safeguards, Clery, Title IX, NIST 800-171, CMMC, HECVAT, and HIPAA across multi-campus systems, research enterprises, financial-aid offices, and shared service centers.
Why IT + Registrar + Research Teams Pick RiskWatch
RiskWatch gives one team a single program covering every office, every campus, and every audit cycle. Answer a question once and the evidence counts everywhere it applies, so the registrar, the financial-aid office, campus safety, and your research enclave stop maintaining separate binders that say the same thing. When the reviewer shows up, whether for a privacy complaint, a campus-safety audit, or a research security check, the package is already there. (Covers FERPA, GLBA Safeguards, Clery, Title IX, NIST 800-171 r3, CMMC 2.0, HECVAT 3.0, and HIPAA without enterprise-bank GRC overhead.)
Your directory-information policy, your financial-aid risk assessment, and your handling of federally funded research data share the same evidence instead of three parallel binders. (FERPA, GLBA Safeguards, and NIST 800-171 r3 cross-mapped.)
Your security team, student-conduct staff, and Title IX coordinator record an incident once and it feeds both the campus-safety report and the Title IX file, instead of being entered twice. (Clery Annual Security Report categories, Title IX investigation logs, and VAWA reauthorization elements tracked as overlays.)
Your CIO, FERPA officer, Clery officer, research compliance director, and Title IX coordinator work from one platform with the libraries pre-built, so you go live in 30 days, not six months. No army of consultants required.
The Education Regulatory Landscape
FERPA has been in force for 50+ years (last amended 2008) and still drives every directory-information disclosure, parental-rights letter, and Department of Education complaint review. GLBA Safeguards extension reached financial-aid offices through Department of Education contractual flow-down. NIST 800-171 r3 (May 2024) tightened protected-information requirements just as CMMC 2.0 enforcement ramps for DoD-funded research. Clery Annual Security Reports drop October 1 every year. Each regulator wants its own evidence package.
Three Domains, One Platform
RiskWatch covers all three. Each domain has a dedicated workflow, scoring model, and remediation queue. They share data so a single vendor questionnaire satisfies HECVAT 3.0, GLBA Safeguards §314.4(d) (service-provider oversight), NIST 800-171 r3 §3.16.3 (supply-chain risk), and the institution's own procurement-risk SOP simultaneously.
Survey-based risk assessment across student records, research CUI, third-party vendor risk, and IT/OT cybersecurity, aligned to FERPA + 800-171 + HECVAT.
FERPA 34 CFR 99, Clery 34 CFR 668.46, Title IX 34 CFR 106, GLBA Safeguards Rule, HEOA, and HIPAA in one cross-mapped library.
GLBA Safeguards Rule, NIST 800-171 r3, CMMC 2.0, NIST CSF 2.0, HECVAT 3.0, and ISO 27001 across every campus and research enterprise.
The Coverage Gap
Student information systems cover registrar workflows. Campus security platforms cover Clery + emergency notification. Privacy/FERPA specialty tools cover disclosure logs. Internal audit tools cover institutional risk. HECVAT-only tools cover vendor questionnaires. Each does one job. Compliance teams still operate five parallel programs.
| Platform Category | FERPA | GLBA | Clery | Research CUI | Title IX | Multi-campus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SIS PlatformsBanner, PeopleSoft | Partial | · | · | · | Partial | Yes |
| Campus Security SpecialtyPublic Safety, RAVE, Omnigo | · | · | Yes | · | Partial | Partial |
| Privacy / FERPA SpecialtyOneTrust, TrustArc | Yes | Partial | · | · | · | Partial |
| Internal Audit / ERMWorkiva, AuditBoard | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial | · |
| HECVAT-only ToolsHECVAT processors, vendor portals | · | Partial | · | Partial | · | · |
| Spreadsheets & Email | · | · | · | · | · | · |
| RiskWatchThe unified audit-ready platform | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
RiskWatch is the only platform covering all six education compliance domains: FERPA student-record privacy, GLBA Safeguards in financial-aid offices, Clery Act crime reporting + ASR, research CUI under NIST 800-171 r3 + CMMC 2.0, Title IX investigations + grievance procedures, and multi-campus coordination. SIS platforms cover registrar workflows. Campus-security tools cover Clery + emergency notification. Privacy specialty tools cover FERPA disclosure logs. Each does one job. RiskWatch unifies all six in one survey-based assessment workflow.
How It Works
RiskWatch is a survey-based assessment platform. The work is structured around questionnaires that capture student-data, research-CUI, vendor-risk, financial-aid-Safeguards, Clery, and Title IX posture in a consistent format, then scored against every framework you align to.
For education, that workflow runs continuously across FERPA disclosure cycles, Clery ASR October 1 deadlines, Title IX investigation queues, GLBA Safeguards quarterly reviews, NIST 800-171 r3 + CMMC 2.0 research-CUI assessments, HECVAT 3.0 vendor onboarding, and HIPAA for campus health centers. A single vendor questionnaire scores against HECVAT 3.0, GLBA §314.4(d), NIST 800-171 r3 §3.16.3, and the institution's own procurement-risk SOP simultaneously.
The same platform runs all of it, surfaces gaps before regulator arrival, assigns remediation owners, and tracks completion. Replace the five parallel tools and the spreadsheet bridge between them.
Built For Your Role
Owns institutional cybersecurity program, board-level cyber risk posture, and ED cybersecurity self-attestation for federally funded institutions.
NIST CSF 2.0 + 800-171 r3 + GLBA Safeguards scored continuously. ED self-attestation captured. Board metrics surface from the same vault.Owns FERPA disclosure register, directory-information policy, parental-rights letters, and Department of Education complaint responses.
FERPA disclosure log live. Directory-information opt-outs tracked. Annual notification distribution captured. Audit-ready package on demand.Owns Clery Act crime statistics, daily crime log, Annual Security Report assembly, and emergency notification + timely warning compliance.
Clery ASR ready by October 1. CSA training tracked. VAWA reauthorization sections complete. Daily crime log audit-ready.Owns NIST 800-171 r3 + CMMC 2.0 readiness for DoD-funded research, CUI handling, research enclave attestations, and DFARS 7012 flow-down.
800-171 r3 SSP + POA&M live. CMMC 2.0 readiness tracked. Research-enclave attestations captured. Subcontractor flow-down monitored.Owns GLBA Safeguards Rule for financial-aid information security, ED cybersecurity self-attestation, and student-information protection.
GLBA Safeguards posture continuous. Designated qualified individual + WISP captured. ED self-attestation evidence ready.Owns Title IX investigation queue, sex-based discrimination response, ED OCR complaint correspondence, and 34 CFR 106 procedural compliance.
Title IX investigation logs live. Complainant + respondent procedural rights tracked. Hearing + appeal evidence captured. OCR-ready.Built For Your Segment
State + public university systems under federal FERPA + GLBA + Clery + Title IX plus state student-privacy laws + state board / system-office reporting requirements.
Private R1 research universities + liberal arts colleges under FERPA + GLBA + Clery + Title IX plus 800-171 r3 + CMMC 2.0 for DoD-funded research operations.
Two-year + technical colleges under FERPA + GLBA + Clery plus state community-college system reporting + workforce-development grant compliance requirements.
K-12 school districts under FERPA + COPPA + state student data privacy laws (e.g., SOPIPA in California, NYS Ed Law §2-d) + IDEA confidentiality requirements.
Online + distance-learning institutions under FERPA + GLBA + state-authorization NC-SARA + accreditor distance-learning standards plus IT vendor + LMS-platform risk.
Research hospitals + affiliated medical schools under FERPA (academic) + HIPAA (clinical) + 800-171 (DoD research) + Common Rule + IRB human-subjects protections.
Frameworks We Cover
RiskWatch ships with pre-built libraries for every major US education regulation + industry standard + recommended practice. Map controls once. Score against the framework that matters this audit cycle.
Trusted by 500+ risk and compliance teams
We had FERPA + Clery + GLBA on three different tools and were spinning up a fourth for 800-171 r3 to take on a DoD subcontract. Now it's one platform. FERPA disclosure register, Clery ASR assembly, GLBA Safeguards posture, NIST 800-171 r3 SSP + POA&M, and HECVAT vendor onboarding all run from the same evidence vault. Our last cybersecurity self-attestation took two days instead of two weeks.
Resources
Higher-Ed · K-12 · Research
30-minute walkthrough of the education library, your campus + regulator inputs, and the single evidence-trail output. No slideware, no consulting upsell.
Or call US: +1 941-500-4525
