The primary purpose of this document is to help state and local education agencies and schools develop adequate policies and procedures to protect information about students and their families from improper release, while satisfying the need for school officials to make sound management, instructional, and service decisions.

The National Forum on Education Statistics (NFES)¹ recognized the significance of such security issues and raised concerns about the privacy of student data being collected, used, and released at all levels. In 1994, the Forum completed a report, Education Data Confidentiality: Two Studies. The Data Confidentiality Task Force was then established to identify ways to help state education agencies, school districts, and schools ensure the privacy of education records and to clarify the laws that exist for these agencies and the general public.

This document is produced under the Task Force's direction. A companion brochure, Protecting the Privacy of Student Education Records, has been developed to help educators and the general public understand the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Appendix A contains a copy of the brochure.

NFES is exploring other issues closely related to the privacy of education records. One of them is the security of information technology in education agencies and schools. Guidelines focusing primarily on this area will be published in a separate document in early 1998. In addition, the Forum is examining the issues of interagency data sharing between education and other service agencies at the state and local levels. An issue paper also will be published in early 1998. 

¹ Authorized by the Hawkins-Stafford Education Amendments of 1988 (Public Law 100-297), NCES established a National Cooperative Education Statistics System. This System is intended to produce and maintain--with the cooperation of the states--uniform and comparable data for education policymaking at the federal, state, and local levels. The work of implementing the System is carried out by NFES, an appointed group that meets twice each year to debate and approve the findings and recommendations of its committees.

 
For questions about the content of this product, please contact Lee M. Hoffman.