Privacy in Education

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Privacy in Education
FERPA, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, is a Federal law meant to protect the privacy of students personal, educational, and health information. The initial wording of FERPA implies it provides a extremely high level of personal privacy in our education. However, as you dig deeper into the law it becomes glaringly obvious how little protection this law actually provides. With multiple “loops-holes” built into its protection, FERPA has become nothing more than an illusion of privacy protection.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, “FERPA does not regulate a school official from disclosing information about a student if the information is obtained through the school official’s personal knowledge or observation of the student” (U.S. Department of Education: “Joint Guidance on the Application of the FERPA”). This means any school employee may unequivocally share information so long as they choose to not officially document said information in a student’s personal education records. Another loop-hole allows schools to share personal information, without the consent of the student or their parents, so long as the information is labeled directory information. Directory information is a student’s full name, address, telephone number, date of birth, honors, awards, and attendance record. This information may include even more personal information depending on what the individual educational institution classifies directory information as. As disturbing as this information is, these are only two of the many loop-holes currently worked into FERPA law.
FERPA also allows education and treatment records to be shared with third parties without consent, so long as, the person receiving the information ...

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...et forth by our government to protect our privacy will actually protect our privacy. However, FASFA has created so many loop-holes that it no longer functions as a true protection, but just lends us an allusion of protection.

Works Cited
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Public Health and Schools Toolkit. Arlington: Association of State an d Territorial Health Officials, 2014. PDF file.
U.S. Department of Education. Joint Guidance on the Application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 to Student Health Records. Washington: U.S. Department of Education, 2008. PDF file.
---. Balancing Student Privacy and School Safety: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act for Colleges and Universities. Washington: U.S. Department of Education, 2007. PDF file.

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