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ferpa

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Saved by Wesley Fryer
on March 26, 2009 at 11:38:44 pm
 

FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA or the Buckley Amendment) relates to student privacy rights for student records controlled by educational institutions. FERPA requires website owners to restrict access to sites which gather/collect personal profile information to individuals 13 years and older.

 

How do some school administrators invoke FERPA to block web 2.0 sites?

Some school administrators cite FERPA as the reason social networking sites (like Ning) must be blocked and other web 2.0 sites are blocked.

 

What Does FERPA Require?

When litigation concerning particular students or district staff is ongoing or expected, district personnel are required and expected to take reasonable steps to archive official communications. This includes analog/paper based communications as well as official, school-provided email communications.

 

FERPA does not:

  • Require all schools to Ning websites
  • Require schools to block all social networking websites
  • Require schools to block other web 2.0 sites

 

What is the Takeaway Here?

FERPA requires website owners take steps to prevent access and use by students under age 13 if personal profile information is saved/stored on the site. School officials are NOT required to block any web 2.0 sites or services because of the law.

 

Additional Resources Relating to FERPA

 

  1. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) - Final Regulations April 2004 (PDF)
  2. The EdJurist Blog

 

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