Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
| Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act | |
|---|---|
| Short Title | FERPA |
| Official Text | Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act |
| Country/Jurisdiction | United States |
| State or Province | |
| Regulatory Bodies | Dept Ed |
| Date Enacted | 1974/08/21 |
| Scope of the Law | Students, Parents, Educators |
| Information | |
| Taxonomy | Breach of Confidentiality, Decisional Interference, Disclosure, Exclusion, Identification, Identifying, Increased Accessibility, Insecurity, Secondary Use |
| Strategies | |
The FERPA is an act that ensures the United States standards of the student and family educational and privacy rights. It protects parents from misleading or inappropriate data of any student's educational records. Besides, the collected students' records shall not be released by educational institutions that may impact students' security.
- Privacy Silo: Information Privacy
- Business Sector: Education
- Targeted Info: Education Records
- Protects: Students, Parents
Text of the law
§1232g. Family educational and privacy rights
Nothing in this Act or the Higher Education Act of 1965 [20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq., 42 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.] shall be construed to prohibit an institution of higher education from disclosing, to a parent or legal guardian of a student, information regarding any violation of any Federal, State, or local law, or of any rule or policy of the institution, governing the use or possession of alcohol or a controlled substance, regardless of whether that information is contained in the student's education records, if—
(A) the student is under the age of 21; and
(B) the institution determines that the student has committed a disciplinary violation with respect to such use or possession.
(2) State law regarding disclosure
Nothing in paragraph (1) shall be construed to supersede any provision of State law that prohibits an institution of higher education from making the disclosure described in subsection (a) of this section.
(j) Investigation and prosecution of terrorism
(1) In general
Notwithstanding subsections (a) through (i) of this section or any provision of State law, the Attorney General (or any Federal officer or employee, in a position not lower than an Assistant Attorney General, designated by the Attorney General) may submit a written application to a court of competent jurisdiction for an ex parte order requiring an educational agency or institution to permit the Attorney General (or his designee) to—
(A) collect education records in the possession of the educational agency or institution that are relevant to an authorized investigation or prosecution of an offense listed in section 2332b(g)(5)(B) of title 18, or an act of domestic or international terrorism as defined in section 2331 of that title; and
(B) for official purposes related to the investigation or prosecution of an offense described in paragraph (1)(A), retain, disseminate, and use (including as evidence at trial or in other administrative or judicial proceedings) such records, consistent with such guidelines as the Attorney General, after consultation with the Secretary, shall issue to protect confidentiality.
(2) Application and approval
(A) In general.—An application under paragraph (1) shall certify that there are specific and articulable facts giving reason to believe that the education records are likely to contain information described in paragraph (1)(A).
(B) The court shall issue an order described in paragraph (1) if the court finds that the application for the order includes the certification described in subparagraph (A).
(3) Protection of educational agency or institution An educational agency or institution that, in good faith, produces education records in accordance with an order issued under this subsection shall not be liable to any person for that production.
(4) Record-keeping
Subsection (b)(4) of this section does not apply to education records subject to a court order under this subsection.
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