The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a Federal law, requires the school district, with certain exceptions, obtain your written consent prior to the disclosure of personally identifiable information from your child’s education records. However, the school district may disclose appropriately designated directory information without written consent, unless you have advised the school district to the contrary in accordance with school district procedures. The primary purpose of directory information is to allow the school district to include this type of information from your child’s education records in certain school publications. Examples include:
- A playbill, showing your student’s role in a drama production;
- The annual yearbook;
- Honor roll or other recognition lists;
- Graduation programs; and,
- Sports activity sheets, such as for wrestling, showing weight and height of team members.
Directory information, which is information that is generally not considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if released, can also be disclosed to outside organizations without a parent’s prior written consent. Outside organizations include, but are not limited to, companies that manufacture class rings or publish yearbooks. In addition, two federal laws require local educational agencies receiving assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to provide military recruiters, upon request, with the following information – names, addresses and telephone listings – unless parents have advised the local education agency that they do not want their student’s information disclosed without their prior written consent.
If you do not want the school district to disclose directory information from your child’s education records without your prior written consent, you must notify the school district in writing by September 1. The school district has designated the following information as directory information:
- Student’s name
- Address
- Telephone listing
- Electronic mail address
- Photograph
- Date and place of birth
- Major field of study
- Dates of attendance
- Grade level
- Participation in officially recognized activities and sports
- Weight and height of members of athletic teams
- Degrees, honors, and awards received
- The most recent educational agency or institution attended
- Student ID number, user ID, or other unique personal identifier used to communicate in electronic systems that cannot be used to access education records without a PIN, password, etc.
