o the creator or originator of that record in order to verify authenticity without the student’s permis

Example Scenarios

provide a letter of recommendation for a student that includes grades unless you have received written consent from the student to release this information for this explicit purpose.

provide anyone outside the college with lists of students enrolled in classes;

If you teach several sections of the same course but the students do not interact with each other in a physical classroom or online, the courses cannot be merged in Carmen.

The teacher who saw the incident in-person can speak about it because FERPA is not a confidentiality law. It only protects what’s in a student’s education record.

If a school denies access to student records to a parent of a student under the age of 18, that’s a FERPA violation

One is that, generally, higher education institutions can choose to release a students’ education records to both parents, provided that at least one parent claims the student as a dependent for tax purposes.

“It should be clear that [the data] belongs to the school, not to the vendor, and that the vendor’s responsibility is to process it for the benefit of the school and its students, and not for the vendor’s own benefit,” McDonald says.

“Law enforcement unit records” (i.e., records created by the law enforcement unit, created for a law enforcement purpose, and maintained by the law enforcement unit) are not “education records” subject to the privacy protections of FERPA. As such, the law enforcement unit may refuse to provide a parent or eligible student with an opportunity to inspect and review law enforcement unit records, and it may disclose law enforcement unit records to third parties without the parent or eligible student’s prior written consent

Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them.

schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31): 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.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.

These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level.