![]() Such complaints could focus on instances in which an individual student believes that his or her personal information was improperly shared, for example. ![]() Under the law, schools must generally obtain written consent before releasing any part of a student’s educational record to third parties, although a number of exceptions apply.Īccording to the Inspector General audit, FERPA violations can harm children by exposing them to bullying or harassment, damaging their chances of graduating or finding employment, or by allowing their personal information to be improperly shared with vendors or other third parties.īecause of such risks, parents who believe their child’s FERPA rights have been violated have the right to file complaints with the Education Department. Passed in 1974, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act gives parents the right to access their children’s educational records and to seek changes in records they believe to be inaccurate. ![]() ![]() The Inspector General’s report included a number of recommendations for improvement, including allocating “appropriate resources” to FERPA enforcement, implementing modern software to track complaints, and halting the practice of designating some cases as indefinitely inactive.ĭepartment officials said they agreed with the suggestions and have already begun taking steps to address the problems.Įducation Secretary Betsy DeVos “takes the recommendations in the OIG’s report seriously and is committed to ensuring the resources and mechanisms are in place for the department to meet its legal obligation under FERPA,” department spokeswoman Elizabeth Hill said in a statement. Department of Education, Office of Inspector General Number of completed investigations in 2017 that were not officially closed for as long as eight months due to bureaucratic delays: 31 Open investigations, as of September 2017: 285 Department of Education’s handling of FERPA complaints. Here is a quick breakdown of the numbers behind the Inspector General’s harsh critique of the U.S. “Parents have these very serious complaints about their kids’ privacy having been violated, and they go through the trouble of filing complaints, but they just sit for years without any kind of substantive response.” “They’ve felt completely left in the lurch,” said activist Leonie Haimson, the co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. Privacy advocates said the findings validate longstanding criticism of a process that has for years left parents frustrated and infuriated. “Complainants’ privacy rights are also not appropriately protected as FERPA intends.” “The Privacy Office is not meeting its statutory obligation to appropriately enforce FERPA and resolve FERPA complaints,” the Inspector General concluded. Even the two-dozen investigations the office did officially close took an average of more than two years to complete. In 31 cases during the 2017 fiscal year, the department completed investigations, but failed to officially close them, because the necessary paperwork was left to languish on managers’ desks for as long as eight months. Nearly a third of those complaints were more than two years old, the audit found.
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