Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) Resource Page
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) gives parents the right to inspect instructional materials used in U.S. Department of Education–funded research and obligates researchers to obtain parental consent before their child participates in U.S. Department of Education–funded research that collects certain types of information.
Web sites
Family Policy Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education
(http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/index.html)
The Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) of the U.S. Department of Education is the first stop for those needing information on FERPA or PPRA. Resources available on the FPCO Web site include the following:
- Information on both FERPA and PPRA
- An Online Library
- Model notification documents for both FERPA and PPRA
- The Department of Education letter to superintendents about district responsibilities under FERPA and PPRA (which is in the Hot Topics section)
Publications Available Online
Sharing Information: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and Participation in Juvenile Justice Programs. Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1997. (http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/pubs/sharing- info.html) This publication is a guide for school districts, law enforcement agencies, and juvenile justice agencies on developing interagency information sharing agreements that comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
Forum Guide to Protecting the Privacy of Student Information: State and Local Education Agencies Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, 2004. (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/privacy/index.asp)
This publication helps state and local education agencies and schools develop policies and procedures to protect information about students and their families from improper release. It provides a summary of the key laws and information on protecting privacy during data collection, maintaining data security, providing children’s records to parents, and releasing information to other agencies.
The Laws
A summary of FERPA can be found at http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html
A summary of PPRA can be found at http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ppra/index.html
The full text of FERPA and PPRA can be found by searching Code of Federal Regulations at GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html).
- FERPA: search for 34CFRP99
- PPRA: search for 34CFR98
