ELI5: What is FERPA?
FERPA is the law that says your school can’t share your grades or personal records with just anyone. Your parents (or you, when you’re older) get to decide who sees that information.
Definition
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a US federal law enacted in 1974 that protects the privacy of student education records. FERPA applies to all educational institutions that receive federal funding (essentially all US public schools and most private colleges). It gives students (or their parents, for minors) the right to access, review, and request corrections to their education records, and prohibits disclosure without written consent.
Key Details
- Applies to: K-12 schools and higher education institutions that receive federal funding
- Protects: grades, transcripts, disciplinary records, financial records, and other education records
- Students 18+ (or enrolled in post-secondary education) hold FERPA rights; for younger students, parents hold the rights
- Penalties: institutions found in violation may lose federal funding
- FERPA intersects with HIPAA in school health clinic scenarios — FERPA typically takes precedence for student health records maintained by the school
Connections
- Parent: regulations-and-frameworks — FERPA is a sector-specific US privacy regulation for education
- See also: hipaa
- See also: pii-personally-identifiable-information