FERPA

FERPA's primary purpose is:

• To inform educators of the educational information that must be kept on all students

• To give eligible students (e.g. 18 year olds) complete control over the records

• To protect medical records and to give students the opportunity to decide who will have their medical records

• To establish noncustodial parents' rights to participate in teacher conferences

• To ensure parents' right to view their children's education records and to decide within certain parameters who will access their child's records.

Stepparents:

• Do not have the rights to their stepchild's educational records.

• Are entitled to their stepchild's educational records if they have been in the child's life at least 5 years.

• Are entitled to their stepchild's educational records if they are present on a day-to-day basis in the home with the child and the other parent is absent from the home.

• Are entitled to their stepchild's educational records only if the natural parent signs permission for them to view records.

• Have to legally adopt a child in order to view the child's educational records.

The FERPA law:

• Requires school districts to notify their rights under FERPA each year.

• Only requires school districts to notify parents of kindergartens and first-graders of their rights under FERPA.

• Does not speak to parental rights under FERPA.

• Only requires parental notification of rights if educational records are requested by agencies or individuals with legitimate educational interest.

• Only requires districts to notify eligible students of their rights.

Directory Information:

• Refers to the law requiring parents to be given the contact information for their child's teacher

• Applies to the publication of athletes' achievements during sporting events and the resulting statistics

• Is information about a student that would generally not be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed.

• Is the 211 national crisis hotline for all students.

Check all options that could be considered a legitimate educational interest:

• sending a student's records to a new school

• needing information for a disciplinary issue

• providing a student counseling

• giving information to a student's baseball coach

FERPA stands for: Family Educational Rights and ______________ Act