FERPA compliance

FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 was enacted to support and promote the protection of privacy and reasonable governance of student education records.

FERPA provides parents of students and eligible students:
  • The right to inspect and review their education records
  • Governance over disclosure of their education records
  • A mechanism to amend incorrect education records
  • A mechanism for parents to opt out of having their children’s directory information published
FERPA requires states to use reasonable methods to ensure the security of their information technology (IT) solutions. This may be achieved by hosting education records on cloud computing solutions. The law, in general, requires covered institutions and agencies to reasonably safeguard student education records from improper use or disclosure.

Because FERPA was authored in 1974, it lacks clear guidance on modern technology use, which means that educational institutions are often left to create their own solutions.

Skipper utilizes a comprehensive set of features and services to safeguard information; physical protection, logical controls, multifactor authentication, and encryption are all native components of our products.

About the records and how they are collected or processed by Skipper

FERPA defines “education records” as “records, files, documents, and other materials that are maintained by an educational agency or institution, or by a person acting for such agency or institution.” Education records also include any record that pertains to an individual’s previous attendance as a “student of an institution.”2
  1. Inspect. Parents have the right to inspect and review their child’s education records - Skipper neither requests nor receives any records
  2. Correct. Parents have the right to request that the school correct or amend their child’s education records when the records are inaccurate or misleading. If the school decides not to amend the records, then the student (or parent/guardian) has the right to a formal hearing - Skipper neither requests nor receives any records
  3. Release. Schools must obtain the written permission of parents to release any information from their child’s education records, with certain exceptions. Schools may release records to the following parties without consent: 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; Authorized parties in a court case, 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 - Skipper neither requests nor receives any records
  4. Opt out. Schools must give parents the opportunity to opt out of having their children’s directory information published - Skipper neither requests nor receives any records