SLDS and FERPA

The Education Department cleared up a few questions held by the Nevada Department of Education earlier this year about whether and how the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, applies to the state’s longitudinal data system.
According to a letter posted online by the Education Department, a parent had asked to see the records for his children kept in the data system. But the Nevada Department of Education couldn’t produce the data the parent wanted and said it had no way for parents to view the data in a readable format.
Nevada officials asked the feds if the longitudinal data system qualified as “education records” under FERPA and how the state should best fulfill the parent’s request. For example, state officials wondered whether they had to develop some type of program that would produce readable data.
The data system is covered by FERPA, the Education Department told the state. Nevada must allow parents to view their child’s records and must provide some type of explanation to help parents understand the data. But the state doesn’t have to develop a new program to read the data.

The Kansas Board of Regents also recently had questions for federal officials about federal privacy law. The regents wanted to ensure that subcontractors involved in a project handling student data with a third party contractor are covered by FERPA.