FERPA Checker

FERPA gives parents the right to see their children’s education records, to seek corrections, and some control over who else sees them; the rights pass to the student at 18 or on entering college at any age. Education Dept.

A school needs signed and dated written consent from the parent or the eligible student before it shares personally identifiable information from a student’s education records, unless an exception in the regulation applies. 34 CFR 99.30(a)

This checker asks up to six questions and links each rule it uses to the federal regulation or Education Department page it comes from.

How This Checker Decides

• The Education Department says FERPA covers public schools, school districts, and colleges and universities that get its money; private and religious elementary and secondary schools generally don’t get that money and aren’t covered. Education Dept.
• A school needs signed and dated written consent from the parent or the eligible student before it shares personally identifiable information from a student’s education records, unless an exception in the regulation applies. 34 CFR 99.30(a)
• A student becomes an “eligible student” on turning 18 or on attending a college or other school beyond high school, at any age. 34 CFR 99.3
• At that point the rights, including the right to consent, pass from the parents to the student. 34 CFR 99.5(a)(1)
• A school may share directory information only after giving public notice of which items it treats as directory information, the right to refuse, and the deadline to refuse in writing. 34 CFR 99.37(a)
• A school or school district may share records with its own teachers and other officials whom it has determined have a legitimate educational interest in them. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(1)(i)(A)
• A school may send records to officials of another school, school system or college where the student seeks or plans to enroll, or is already enrolled, for purposes related to the enrollment or transfer. The sending school must try to notify the parent or eligible student unless they started the request or the school’s annual notice says it forwards records, and on request it must give them a copy and a chance for a hearing. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(2)34 CFR 99.34(a)
• A school may share records to comply with a court order or a lawfully issued subpoena. First it must make a reasonable effort to warn the parent or eligible student so they can seek protective action, unless the order or subpoena is one of a few law enforcement or terrorism cases where a court or issuing agency ordered it kept secret. When a parent is a party to a court case about child abuse, neglect or dependency and the order comes from that case, the school doesn’t have to notify the parent first. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(9)(i)34 CFR 99.31(a)(9)(ii)U.S. Code
• In an emergency, a school may share information with appropriate parties, including the parents of an eligible student, if knowing it is necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or other people. The school must see an articulable and significant threat, and the Education Department won’t second-guess its decision if it had a rational basis at the time. The school must write down the threat and who received the information. 34 CFR 99.36(a)34 CFR 99.36(c)34 CFR 99.32(a)(5)
• If the student is a dependent of a parent under federal tax law (Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code), a school may share records with the parents without the student’s consent, even after the student turns 18 or starts college; either parent may receive them. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(8)

When Schools Can Share Records Without Consent

• A school or school district may share records with its own teachers and other officials whom it has determined have a legitimate educational interest in them. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(1)(i)(A)
• A school may send records to officials of another school, school system or college where the student seeks or plans to enroll, or is already enrolled, for purposes related to the enrollment or transfer. The sending school must try to notify the parent or eligible student unless they started the request or the school’s annual notice says it forwards records, and on request it must give them a copy and a chance for a hearing. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(2)34 CFR 99.34(a)
• A school may share a student’s records with the parent of a student who isn’t an eligible student, and with the student. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(12)
• If the student is a dependent of a parent under federal tax law (Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code), a school may share records with the parents without the student’s consent, even after the student turns 18 or starts college; either parent may receive them. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(8)
• A college may tell a parent that a student broke a law or campus rule on alcohol or drugs if the college has found a disciplinary violation and the student is under 21 when the college tells the parent, unless a state law forbids it. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(15)
• A school may share records to comply with a court order or a lawfully issued subpoena. First it must make a reasonable effort to warn the parent or eligible student so they can seek protective action, unless the order or subpoena is one of a few law enforcement or terrorism cases where a court or issuing agency ordered it kept secret. When a parent is a party to a court case about child abuse, neglect or dependency and the order comes from that case, the school doesn’t have to notify the parent first. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(9)(i)34 CFR 99.31(a)(9)(ii)U.S. Code
• In an emergency, a school may share information with appropriate parties, including the parents of an eligible student, if knowing it is necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or other people. The school must see an articulable and significant threat, and the Education Department won’t second-guess its decision if it had a rational basis at the time. The school must write down the threat and who received the information. 34 CFR 99.36(a)34 CFR 99.36(c)34 CFR 99.32(a)(5)
• A school may share records in connection with financial aid the student applied for or received, when needed to decide eligibility, the amount or the conditions of the aid, or to enforce its terms. Financial aid here means money or property given to a student on the condition that the student attends a school. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(4)(i)34 CFR 99.31(a)(4)(ii)
• A school may share records with authorized representatives of the U.S. comptroller general, the U.S. attorney general, the education secretary, and state and local education authorities, for an audit or evaluation of federal- or state-supported education programs or to enforce federal legal requirements that relate to those programs. 34 CFR 99.35(a)(1)
• A school may share records with organizations doing studies for it to develop or give tests, run student aid programs or improve instruction, under a written agreement that keeps students from being identified by outsiders and requires the data to be destroyed when no longer needed. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(6)
• A school may share records with accrediting organizations to carry out their accrediting work. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(7)
• A school may share information it has designated as directory information, under the notice and opt-out conditions in the regulation. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(11)
• A school may report to state and local officials when a state law specifically allows it and the report concerns the juvenile justice system’s ability to serve the student. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(5)(i)
• A school may share the records of a student in foster care with a caseworker or other representative of a state or local child welfare agency, or a tribal organization, that is legally responsible for the student’s care and can see the student’s case plan; the agency may pass them on only to people addressing the student’s education needs. U.S. Code
• A college may tell the alleged victim of a crime of violence or a nonforcible sex offense the final results of its disciplinary proceeding about that offense, whether or not the college found a violation. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(13)
• A college may disclose the final results of a disciplinary proceeding to anyone only if it found that the accused student committed a crime of violence or nonforcible sex offense in violation of its rules. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(14)(i)
• A school may share information about registered sex offenders that it received under the federal registration law. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(16)
• When a school sues a parent or student, or a parent or eligible student sues the school, the school may give the court the relevant records without a court order or subpoena. 34 CFR 99.31(a)(9)(iii)
• Records with all personally identifiable information removed can be released without consent if the school has made a reasonable determination that the student can’t be identified, through one release or several, taking into account other reasonably available information. 34 CFR 99.31(b)(1)

Directory Information and Opting Out

• Directory information is information that wouldn’t generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy, such as a student’s name, address, phone number, email address, photo, date and place of birth, major, grade level, enrollment status, dates of attendance, activities and sports, athletes’ height and weight, degrees and awards, and most recent school. 34 CFR 99.3
• Directory information never includes a Social Security number, and a student ID number counts only if it can’t open records without a password or PIN. 34 CFR 99.3
• A school may share directory information only after giving public notice of which items it treats as directory information, the right to refuse, and the deadline to refuse in writing. 34 CFR 99.37(a)
• If the school’s notice limits directory information to certain parties or purposes, the school must stay within those limits. 34 CFR 99.37(d)
• An opt-out made while the student attended still binds the school after the student leaves, unless the student cancels it. 34 CFR 99.37(b)
• An opt-out doesn’t stop a school from using a student’s name, identifier or school email address in class, or from requiring a student ID badge. 34 CFR 99.37(c)
• A school can’t release or confirm directory information without consent when a Social Security number or other nondirectory information is used to identify the student. 34 CFR 99.37(e)

When Rights Pass From Parent to Student

• A student becomes an “eligible student” on turning 18 or on attending a college or other school beyond high school, at any age. 34 CFR 99.3
• At that point the rights, including the right to consent, pass from the parents to the student. 34 CFR 99.5(a)(1)
• For a student under 18 who attends both a high school and a college, the parents keep their rights at the high school, while the rights at the college belong to the student. Education Dept.
• A school can still share with a parent without the eligible student’s consent when an exception applies, such as the ones for tax dependents, emergencies and alcohol or drug violations. 34 CFR 99.5(a)(2)
• Either parent has full rights, including after a divorce or separation, unless the school has a court order, state law or legally binding document that specifically takes those rights away. 34 CFR 99.4
• The parent, or the eligible student, has the right to inspect and review the student’s education records, with some limits, and the school must allow it within 45 days of the request. 34 CFR 99.10(a)
• A school may choose to give students rights beyond the ones FERPA gives parents. 34 CFR 99.5(b)

What Isn’t an Education Record

• Education records are records directly related to a student and kept by the school or by someone acting for it, in any form: paper, computer files, email, video or audio. 34 CFR 99.3
• Notes kept only by the person who wrote them, as a memory aid, and shown to no one but a temporary substitute, aren’t education records; once they’re shown to anyone else, that exclusion no longer applies. 34 CFR 99.3
• Records a doctor, psychologist or similar professional makes about a student who is 18 or older or in college, used only for treatment and shared only with people providing it, aren’t education records; once they’re shared for any other purpose, that exclusion no longer applies. 34 CFR 99.3
• A law enforcement unit is a school’s police or security office, or other office the school officially authorizes to enforce the law or keep the school safe. Records that unit creates for a law enforcement purpose and keeps itself aren’t covered, and FERPA neither requires nor forbids sharing them. 34 CFR 99.8(a)(1)34 CFR 99.8(b)(1)
• A copy kept by another school office, such as the principal’s or dean’s, is an education record, and so is anything the unit makes only for discipline; education records handed to the unit stay covered. 34 CFR 99.8(b)(2), (c)(2)
• Records of a job a student holds because of being a student, such as work-study, are education records. 34 CFR 99.3
• Records made after someone stopped attending, and not about their time as a student, such as alumni records, aren’t education records. 34 CFR 99.3
• Grades on papers students grade for each other, before the teacher collects and records them, aren’t education records. 34 CFR 99.3

Records Logs and Complaints

• Every school FERPA covers must notify parents and eligible students each year of their FERPA rights, including the right to consent and to file a complaint. 34 CFR 99.7(a)(1)
• The school must keep a log of who requested or received a student’s records and why, which the parent or eligible student may see; the log skips requests from the school’s own officials, the parent or student, people with written consent, directory information, and some subpoenas and court orders a court has ordered kept secret. 34 CFR 99.32(a)(1)
• When a school shares records with consent, the parent or eligible student can ask for a copy of what was shared. 34 CFR 99.30(c)(1)
• A parent or eligible student may file a written complaint with the U.S. Education Department about a school that broke FERPA. 34 CFR 99.63
• A complaint is on time if it’s filed within 180 days of the violation or of when the complainant knew or should have known about it, and the office can extend that for good cause. 34 CFR 99.64(c)
• Complaints go to the Education Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office, using its FERPA complaint form, by email to FERPA.Complaints@ed.gov or by mail. Education Dept.
• Once the rights pass to the student, parents generally can’t file a FERPA complaint. Education Dept.

Related GovFacts Articles

• FERPA Exceptions: When Schools Can Share Student Records Without Consent
• Directory Information Under FERPA: What Schools Can Disclose
• FERPA for Parents: Accessing Your Child’s School Records
• FERPA in College: Privacy Rights for Students
• Filing a FERPA Complaint: Understanding Your Rights and the Process