Legal Definitions - Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that safeguards the privacy of student education records. It grants parents certain rights regarding their children's education records. These rights transfer directly to the student when they turn 18 years old or enroll in a post-secondary institution (such as a college or university). Essentially, FERPA dictates how educational institutions must manage, maintain, and disclose student information, ensuring that personally identifiable details are kept confidential unless specific conditions are met or explicit consent is given.

Here are some examples illustrating how FERPA applies:

• Scenario: A parent requests access to their child's academic records.

  Imagine a parent of a middle school student wants to review their child's full academic transcript, including grades, attendance records, and standardized test scores, before a meeting with the school counselor. Under FERPA, the school is legally obligated to provide the parent with access to these records. The parent also has the right to request corrections if they believe any information is inaccurate or misleading. This demonstrates FERPA's provision for parents to inspect and review their children's educational information.

• Scenario: A university student's academic performance is requested by a third party.

  Consider a situation where a university student applies for a scholarship, and the scholarship committee contacts the university directly to inquire about the student's GPA and course performance. Because the student is over 18 and attending a post-secondary institution, the FERPA rights have transferred to them. The university cannot release this information to the scholarship committee without the student's explicit written consent, unless a specific exception under FERPA applies. This highlights how FERPA protects an eligible student's control over the disclosure of their personal academic data.

• Scenario: A school shares student data with another institution for enrollment purposes.

  Suppose a student transfers from one public high school to another in a different state. The new school requests the student's cumulative file, including health records, disciplinary history, and previous academic performance, from the old school. FERPA allows the original school to transfer these records to the new school without parental consent, provided the transfer is for legitimate educational purposes and the parents are notified. This illustrates one of the exceptions to the general consent rule, permitting the sharing of records between educational institutions where the student is seeking or has sought enrollment.