EDAS 747
Discussion Board #2: FERPA
The FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) or Buckley Act was enacted in 1974.
FERPA guarantees parents that their child’s educational records will be protected by a certain
degree of confidentiality, and that as a parent, they will be provided a fair process if and when
they would like to access their child’s records, modify, or appeal the information in their child’s
records. Additionally, parents can decide what, if any personally identifiable information about
their child can be disclosed by the school (Essex, 2016). FERPA rights transfer to students when
they turn 18 years old or become postsecondary students (Essex, 2016).
As the 504 Chair for my school, I handle a lot of confidential information for middle school
students with disabilities. This activity was a good refresher course for me, because I was able to
identify a few FERPA violations that had become standard practice for me. One being, sharing
confidential information that included personally identifiable information via email. I receive
student records via email on a regular basis and I’m guilty of emailing information to other
schools, teachers, counselors, and to parents; this will stop on my end immediately.
There are 504 cases that require me to collect information from multiple sources, including
former schools and school districts. Although, according to FERPA, I’m well within my rights;
moving forward, I will speak to the child’s parents prior to making those requests (Essex, 2016).
I don’t want any of my parents to ever feel as if their child’s information is being shared behind
their back. Furthermore, I will do the same prior to providing another school information
regarding their child.
I maintain the 504 folders in our building, and according to Essex I should be signing a form
that is kept in each folder each time I examine the information in one of the files. That is not a
policy our district has enacted. I’m assuming the district keeps a digital footprint of when I
access a student’s 504 file electronically in Edplan, as that is the preferential way to access their
files. If I need to access other records, such as medical, discipline, attendance, grades,
assessment, demographics, parent information, etc. of a 504 student I do it electronically as well.
I will be more mindful of FERPA when I’m accessing my student’s information and document
why I went into their electronic files.
References
Essex, N. (2016). School law and the public schools: A practical guide for educational leaders
(6th ed.). Pearson Publishing.
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