Student Privacy Law: When Is It O.K. to Disclose Student Information?

September 19th, 2009 By: Diane Trim in Articles, School Law

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Two teachers wheeled their shopping carts down an aisle of a Piggly Wiggly grocery store. Instead of saying hello and stocking up on canned peas, they talked at length about a special education student the two teachers had in common.

Mom was in the next aisle. She filed a complaint against the school district.

Education attorney Tom Shorter represented the school district in this complaint. The outcome was that school district had to provide reassurance that this sort of disclosure would not happen again. As a result, the school district asks Shorter to provide annual in-service training about student records privacy, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and other school law issues.

Obviously what the two teachers did in the grocery store was not best practice. But, do you know the law well enough to prevent missteps?

Privacy law and the police. Let’s say two of your students are in a fight off campus, after school. You see your police officer neighbor in the stands at Friday’s football game. Officer Neighbor asks you if one of the kids is in special education classes.

Don’t tell the police officer that information, Shorter recommends. FERPA has some provisions that allow schools to cooperate with law enforcement, but police don’t have open and free access to pupil records.

Instead of telling your neighbor that the student is in special education, suggest that he meet with the principal. He might even be able to find the principal in the stands.

Peer-graded papers. School districts often have their own policies about students grading each others’ work. Shorter said the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the common peer-grading practice.

FERPA protects student records and grades, but Shorter said the justification for the peer grading practice is that the student papers don’t become records until they’re entered in the grade book, which is under FERPA protection. Peer grading and students passing back completed, graded work, is just fine – as long as it’s permissible under your school district’s policies.

Informal notes on a flash drive. More and more teachers are using inexpensive, portable flash drives to store lesson plans and school documents. Teachers also write notes to their substitutes and store them on the flash drives, too. It’s common for teachers to write things like: “Watch Anne for gum chewing. She sticks her gum under the desk when she thinks you aren’t looking.” or “Toby meets with the special education teacher during third block.”

What if someone swiped your flash drive? Are your notes to your substitute included under FERPA? Shorter said that even though FERPA has no explicit provisions about this kind of situation, you should make a reasonable effort to recover your flash drive. It’s good practice to notify parents whose children might be affected as well. Shorter recommends that schools have a procedure in place for these possible events.

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