FERPA Explained

FERPA can feel like a maze, so here’s the plain-language version:

1. What is FERPA?

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of your child’s school records. It gives you two big rights:

1. Access & Accuracy – You can see your child’s education records and ask the school to correct anything that is wrong or misleading.
    
2. Privacy Control – The school generally cannot share personally identifiable information from those records with anyone outside the school — unless you give written consent or a specific legal exception applies (for example, a transfer to another school, a health-and-safety emergency, or a court order).

2. What is “directory information”?

FERPA lets schools designate basic items, such as student name, grade level, address, phone / email, and participation in clubs or sports—as “directory information.”
Because this information is considered non-intrusive (it doesn’t reveal grades, discipline records, or special-education status), FERPA allows schools to share it without prior consent, for instance:

• publishing honor-roll names in the local paper;
   
• printing team rosters in a game program;
   
• listing graduates in a commencement brochure.

3. What does the opt-out do?

By submitting the opt-out form, you are telling us not to release any (or specific parts) of that directory information for your child. If you opt out:

Your child’s name and other chosen items will be excluded from public lists, news releases, or yearbook captions that the school circulates outside the