The family Education Rights and Privacy Act



The family Education Rights and Privacy Act

Introduction

The FERPA or The family Education Rights and Privacy Act was founded in 1974 as one of the laws under US Federal laws. It is also known as Buckley Amendment. The main purpose of this law is to provide right to use the educational records to parents, oversee any necessary alterations done to records, and possess certain level of control over the revelation of information in school records. As per law, the school administration is liable to get consent of students of the age 18 or above before disclosing any kind of information. However, this law is applied to those educational institutes that lie under the jurisdiction of US Department of Education. The situation disregarding FEPRA act include passing on student information to anyone by school authorities such as grades, test scores, behavioral issues during class etc., or posting grades or assessment results of students violating their privacy on a portal or board visible to all. The act binds school authorities to seek permission in written form parents or eligible student to publish or disclose such information to anyone.

Thesis Statement

The primary aim of this paper is to examine the incident incurred at South Houston where teacher unintentionally violated the FERPA due to which an ex special education student's information was read from confidential document and resulted in humiliating situations faced by him. The administration conducted training sessions for teachers and special education student whose agenda was to protect the sensitive and confidential information of students records and related information to avoid future mishaps.

Discussion

The FERPA lies under the 20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99 of federal law and aims to protect and keep confidential the private information of students educational records. As per this law, the parents and entitled students possess the right to oversee and access the records of education and academics sustained by school authorities. This law is stringent enough that school authorities are not authorized to pass or send duplicate copes of these records unless students or parents face the issue of distance. Schools are obliged to charge certain fees for his service. The parents and entitled students have the right to edit or amend the inaccurate records and in case of disagreement between school admin and parents over students over this issue then this issue can be taken to court or for formal hearing.

The rule that was broken or violated in the given case fits in the following stated aspect of the law, which is obligation of school to seek permission from parents and entitled student to in written form before sharing educational information with others. But the law allows school to share this information as per 34 CFR § 99.31 of Act with the following entities:

School personnel

Other school in case of transfer of student

Authoritative personnel such as auditors

Sponsors of student's education such as financial aid providers

Other organizations initiating educational programs within the school

In case of compliance with law

Authorities ...