FERPA and the student "team"

More and more, information about student learning is going digital. Many systems provide online, real-time access to students and parents about student performance. Having access to student information makes it easier for parents to identify problem areas and help hold students accountable. But we know that parents are not the only non-school actors contributing to a child’s learning. Tutors, coaches, care-providers and mentors are all involved in keeping a student on the path to success. Access to information about the student’s school-based learning could significantly enhance their ability to intervene effectively. FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) prevents schools and teachers from sharing personally identifiable information about student learning with anyone outside of the institution except parents. But parents can consent to release records as long as they:

1. Specify the records that may be disclosed;
2. State the purpose of the disclosure;
3. Identify the party or class of parties to whom the disclosure may be made.

The Supplemental Education Services program addresses the issue of providing personally identifiable student information to SES providers (tutors) by requiring that parents provide written consent for the LEA to release existing student information that pertains to specific achievement goals set for the student. However while SES providers are required to provide progress reports to parents and schools, schools are not required to provide any updates to SES providers after the initial agreement. While I wonder how a tutor can be an effective supplement to the classroom with no idea what’s going on there, the practice does avoid the cumbersome problem of requiring teachers to get written parental consent any time they release student information (a quiz grade, for example) to a tutor. There might be a better way.

FERPA’s regulations provide at least two potential methods to make it easier for parents to allow other members of their child’s learning “team” to be informed about student learning. It’s not clear that parents can only consent to release records that already exist. Parents could consent to release a class of records, for example quiz grades or attendance, to specified recipients going forward for a specific period of time (such as the length of a semester). This is not a widespread practice, but it’s not impossible under the law, and with support from the Department of Education it could become more prevalent.

Technology also provides an easier way to get parental consent to release existing information. FERPA regulations allow for written consent in electronic form so long as the school or educational agency uses a “reasonable method” to authenticate the parent’s identity. In the case of grades, for example, a “reasonable method” may be as simple as a PIN number or password. Within online grade-books and other software, electronic consent could make it relatively easy for parents to act as a gatekeeper for student information that comes from the classroom, quickly and easily passing it on to a tutor or mentor who can then provide better intervention and support for the student.