FERPA covers “education records” containing personally identifiable information about students that educational agencies or officials acting on their behalf maintain. Because educational files may include information about more than one student, those reviewing records can examine only those portions of group data specific to their own children or themselves.
A key form of records that school board officials preserve is referred to as directory information. These records cover the “name, address, telephone listing, date and place of birth, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams, degrees and awards received, and the most recent previous educational agency or institution attended by the student.”
Before school officials can release directory information about current students, such as when they apply to institutions of higher education, they must provide their parents, and/ or qualified students over 18, with notice of the categories of records designated as directory, affording them a reasonable time to request that they not be released without their consent.
At the same time, FERPA requires school officials to notify parents and qualified students of their annual right to inspect and review, request amendment of, and consent to disclosure of educational records, plus to file complaints with the federal Department of Education alleging failures to comply with the statute’s terms. Typically, parties receive a single notice that is reasonably likely to inform them of their rights via postings on district websites, in newsletters, student handbooks, notes home, emails, or other methods or combinations of means designed to ensure they receive this information.
Along with access, FERPA directs officials to provide reasonable interpretations and explanations of information contained in student records.
FERPA recognizes four major exceptions from its mandatory disclosure provisions. First, records made by educational personnel, such as teachers who save private notes about their students in their sole possession and are not accessible by others, except temporary substitutes, are exempt from release to other persons, including parents and students. Second, third parties cannot access records kept separately by law enforcement units of educational agencies used solely for their own purposes.
Third, records made in the ordinary course of events relating to individuals who work at, but who do not attend, educational institutions, referring exclusively to their capacity as employees, and are unavailable for other purposes, are exempt from disclosure. Fourth, records about students who are 18 or older, or who attend postsecondary educational institutions, made by physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, or other professionals or paraprofessionals for use in their treatment, and are not available to others, except at the request of the students, cannot be released without their consent.
A special rule applies to students with disabilities who have not been adjudicated incompetent under state law but who cannot provide informed consent regarding their schooling or records. In evaluating whether to grant these students access to their records, officials can take their ages and types or severity of their disabilities into account. In such situations, SBOs and their teams must establish policies and procedures to appoint parents or other appropriate persons to represent students’ educational interests throughout the remaining period of their IDEA eligibility.
Absent court orders or state laws denying access, FERPA grants noncustodial, typically divorced, separated, or unmarried parents the same access rights to the educational records of their children as custodial parents. If court orders or state laws deny access to noncustodial parents, SBOs and their teams should devise policies requiring that the records of these children be kept in separate locations, with information on how to locate them in password-protected files to avoid unintentional disclosure.
The next article in this three-part series will examine FERPA’s exceptions granting access to individuals other than parents and qualified students.