FERPA and Charter Schools

FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, is a federal law protecting the privacy of student educational records. Here are a few tips for charter schools:

• Parent volunteers should not have access to individual student records while they are volunteering in the charter school. In other words, they should not be filing CSAP scores in the school office or using individual academic achievement data in their role as a member of the accountability committee.
• Charter school board members should not have access to student records in their role as board members. For example, they should not have individual student information as a part of conducting the enrollment lottery.
• A student at least 18 years of age is considered an adult and has the legal right to access his or her own student records without parental consent.
• Charter schools, like all public schools, may disclose "directory information" such as name, address, phone number, awards and recognitions and date of birth without parental consent, however they should be notified and given the opportunity to request that their child's information not be released.

More information and sample notices are available at: http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdechart/guidebook/fam/index.htm