FERPA Cybersecurity

What is FERPA

-Stands for Family Education Rights and Privacy Act

A Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.

The law applies to all schools that receive funds from a program by the US
Department of Education.

Origin

Senator James Buckley sponsored the FERPA which was signed into law on
august 21, 1974 by president ford

-designed to protect the privacy of students by limiting third party access to
student education records

Rights included

-Parents/eligable students have the rights to inspect and review the studen’ts
education records maintained by the school

-Parents or eligible students have the right to request that a school correct
records which they believe to be inaccurate or misleading

-Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or the
student in order to release any information from a student’s education record.

-FERPA Allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties
under specific conditions:

Specific conditions

●School officials with legitimate educational interest;

●Other schools to which a student is transferring;

●Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;

●Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;

●Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;

●Accrediting organizations;

●To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;

●Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and

●State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific
State law.

“Directory Information” Rights

It gives the parents certain rights to their children’s education records

The rights transfer to the student either when they turn 18 or they go to higher
education

Schools are able to disclose the student's name, address, telephone number, date
and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance without consent

The schools must notify the parents on their rights under FERPA annually

Current Event

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) didn’t comply with the FERPA regulations.
It released records for the 2022-23 math and reading SOL records for 74 students
and the reading records for 36 students. Both the math records and reading
records include the full names of the students, their scaled scores on the
assessments, breakdowns of correct and incorrect answers, and the levels of the
questions asked of the students.

FCPS still has yet to be prosecuted for its violations of the FERPA

Link to sources

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

https://specialeducationaction.com/fairfax-county-public-schools-continues-to-viola
te-ferpa-fcps-released-personally-identifiable-information-for-110-more-students/