Why was ferpa passed

Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Public Health Professionals Gateway. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Minus Related Pages. Learn More. Email Updates. Students have the right to keep this information private for both personal reasons and to prevent discrimination or harassment from anyone with access to those records.

Under FERPA, students control who sees their records and when, and they may request their records at any time. In this way, students are empowered to check their records for errors and request corrections.

They can also file a grievance should an institution violate their privacy rights. This safeguards students but allows parents to access information should something happen, which is why we find out a lot of details about situations like hazing and campus accidents. And while discipline records are generally private, exceptions exist for cases of sexual assault in order to protect all students from harm.

This exception is important for furthering our understanding and implementation of education programs, which benefits everyone, while protecting each student on an individual level. These rights transfer to the child when he or she reaches the age of 18, thus becoming a student eligible for rights under FERPA. A school must accommodate any inspection request within 45 days of receipt. If a parent or eligible student is circumstantially unable to exercise the right to review the records, the school must provide copies of the records or otherwise make arrangements for the parents or eligible student to inspect the records.

The method of providing such information is left to the discretion of the school. A school may disclose personally identifiable information from education records without consent under the following circumstances:. Every school is required to notify parents and eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA. The notice can take any form the institution or agency considers appropriate, but must explain how a parent or eligible student may:.

These records can only be accessed by a parent or eligible student, the school official responsible for education records and authorized auditing personnel. Students enrolled in post-secondary schools are considered eligible students under FERPA and have the right to review their own education records. However, post-secondary students may not review:.