Section Summary:

A. Principles Underlying Privacy Protections

• Strong federal statutes protect the privacy rights of students and their families. These statutes encompass education records kept in electronic and paper media.
• Agency and school personnel are legally and ethically obliged to safeguard the confidentiality of student data.
• To understand the concept of information privacy, you can apply a short set of principles for providing and using personal information.

• Federal and state privacy statutes pertaining to students build on the concepts of common law and constitutional provisions that imply privacy guarantees.
• The underlying important concepts include notification, disclosure, and informed consent.

• An education record is a compilation of records, files, documents, and other materials that contain information directly related to a student and maintained by education agencies or institutions, or by individuals acting on behalf of the agencies.
• Confidentiality refers to your obligation not to disclose or transmit information to unauthorized parties.
• Privacy reflects an individual's freedom from intrusion.
• Security refers to technical procedures which ensure that only the authorized and intended parties have access to data.
• Disclosure includes permitting access to, revealing, releasing, transferring, disseminating, or otherwise communicating all or any part of any individual record orally, in writing, or by electronic or any other means to any person or entity.
• FERPA defines parent as a natural or adoptive parent, legal guardian, or an individual acting as a parent in the absence of the parent or guardian. These rights transfer to eligible students when they reach 18 or when they attend a postsecondary education institution.
• An agency or school refers to the entity that collects, maintains, uses, and releases information from education records.

 
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