Biz Tech Tips, episode 61

What is FERPA and what rights does it confer?

FERPA stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. This act gives certain rights to the parents, which are transferred to the students themselves at the age of 18.

Parents or eligible students have the right to inspect and review the student's records (this is not required to be electronic however, and schools can opt to only show this information inperson, or where that's not possible, to charge a copying fee)

Parents or eligible students have the right to request that certain school records be amended, and if that amendment is rejected, they have the right to a hearing.

Usually written permission is required from the parent or eligible student to disclose the student's education record, but there are exceptions:
School officials with legitimate educational interest
Other schools a student is transferring to
Specific officials for audit or evaluation
Appropriate parties related to financial aid of the student
Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school
Accrediting organizations
To comply with a judicial order
Appropriate officials in cases of health or safety emergencies
State and local authorities within a juvenile justice system

Schools can also disclose without consent "directory information" like name, address, date of birth, dates of attendance, etc. Parents and eligible students have the ability to opt out of this as well.

Schools are also required to tell parents or eligible students about FERPA on an at least annual basis.

Now, none of this is tech specific legislation, but as more and more schools move (or are already on) an entirely digital setup, there needs to be ways to handle all of these tasks. There needs to be tracking for which people access/request/disperse what, which requests have been made and at what times, as well as ways for tracking optouts and yearly disclosures, and more. It's fairly straightforward for an IT department to handle this, but they need to be aware of the requirements in order to ensure everything is in line.

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