Summary
This is a guide to FERPA and the rights, limitations, and restrictions around releasing student records and private information.
Intended Audience
- K-12
- Elementary
- Secondary
- School Office Specialists
- Registrars
- Office Managers
- anyone handling student records
Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
Statute: 20 U.S.C. §1232g
Regulations: 34 CFR Part 99
FERPA is a privacy law that affords parents and eligible (age 18+) students the right to:
- Have access to their children's education records
- Seek to have the records amended, and
- Consent to the disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records, except as provided by law
Definition of “Parent” Under FERPA:
“Parent” means a parent of a student and includes a natural parent, a guardian, or an individual acting as a parent in the absence of a parent or guardian. Includes custodial and noncustodial parents.
Transfer of Rights Under FERPA
When a student turns 18 years old, or enters a postsecondary institution at any age, the rights under FERPA transfer from the parents to the student ("eligible student").
FERPA applies to:
- Elementary
- Secondary
- Postsecondary
- AND receive US Department of Education funding
Education Records under FERPA are:
- Directly related to a student, AND
- Maintained by an educational agency, institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution
Exemptions to "education records" include:
- Sole possession records used as a personal memory aid
- Law enforcement unit records
- Peer-graded papers before they are collected and records by teachers
- Student employment records
- Treatment records
Records that are subject to FERPA are not subject to the HIPAA Privacy Rule (see page 82483, Federal Register, Vol. 65, No. 250, December 28, 2000). Health records on students, including immunization records, maintained by an educational agency or institution subject to FERPA are “education records.”
What rights do parents and eligible students have?
Right to inspect and review education records;
- Right to request amendment of education records;
- Right to consent to disclosures, with certain exceptions; and
- Right to file a complaint with U.S. Department of Education regarding an alleged violation of FERPA
General Written Consent Requirement
In order for a school to disclose education records, a parent or eligible student provide a signed and dated written consent.
The consent must:
- Specify records that may be disclosed;
- State purpose of disclosure; and
- Identify party or class of parties to whom disclosure may be made.
Exceptions to the general consent requirement:
- Directory information
- To school officials with legitimate educational interests (defined in annual notification);
- To schools in which a student seeks or intends to enroll*
- To authorized representatives of specific federal agencies and state and local educational authorities conducting an audit, evaluation, or enforcement of federally-or state-supported education programs
- To organizations conducting studies for specific purposes on behalf of educational agency or institution;
- In connection with a health or safety emergency
- To accrediting organizations to carry out their accrediting functions;
- To parents of a dependent student;
- To comply with a judicial order or subpoena (generally requires reasonable effort to notify parent or eligible student at last known address);
- To child welfare agency or tribal organization for those children in foster care, in order to address the student’s education needs
- To state and local officials pursuant to a state statute in connection with serving the student under the juvenile justice system
Recordkeeping Requirements:
An educational agency or institution must maintain a record of each request for access to and each disclosure from an education record, as well as the names of State and local educational authorities and Federal officials and agencies listed in §99.31(a)(3) that may make further disclosures of personally identifiable information from the student’s education records without consent under §99.33.
⚠ Very important: Request Tracking must be documented within Synergy every time a record has been disclosed to a requestor.
FAQs
- directly related to the student; and
- maintained by the school or party acting for school
- Direct Identifiers (Name, SSN, Student ID Number, etc.)
- Indirect Identifiers (Birthdate, Demographics Information)
- Other Information ("that, alone or in combination, is linked or linkable to a specific student that would allow a reasonable person in the school community, who does not have personal knowledge of the relevant circumstances, to identify the student with reasonable certainty.” (§99.3)
- School must comply with request within 45 days
- Schools are generally required to give copies, or make other arrangements for access, if failure to do so would effectively deny access –example would be a parent or student who does not live within commuting distance
- School may not destroy records if request for access is pending
SKPS Policies regarding FERPA:
If you have questions regarding a FERPA related issue, please contact the Student Records Department or District Records Manager for guidance. There can be many grey-areas and not every situation receives the same answer.
Additional Help
Student Records Sharepoint Site
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