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Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)  

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.  FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are "eligible students."

 

Directory Information

Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them. Schools must notify parents and eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA. The actual means of notification (special letter, inclusion in a PTA bulletin, student handbook, or newspaper article) is left to the discretion of each school.

 

Peer Grading is Not a Violation of FERPA

In a 9-0 decision the United States Supreme Court held that the classroom practice of allowing students to grade each other’s work is not a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).  The Court concluded that classroom work assignments are not education records as defined by the Act.  “FERPA,” the Court said, “implies that education records are institutional records kept by a single central custodian, such as a registrar, not individual assignments handled by many student graders in their separate classrooms.”  The Court did not address whether a teacher’s grade book is an education record.  This reverses a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision.  

 

FERPA Not Enforceable Under § 1983

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits the federal funding of post-secondary, secondary and elementary schools that release education records without the consent of parents/eligible student.  A Gonzaga University student sued for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 when he learned that a university official shared personally identifiable information about him without his consent.  The United States Supreme Court ruled that FERPA does not create a private right of action enforceable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.  Instead, the act directs the U.S. Department of Education to address violations of FERPA.  The Court noted that the “the Secretary [of Education] created the Family Policy Compliance Office, [for purposes of] resolving student complaints about suspected FERPA violations.”  

 

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