Educational Rights And Privacy Act (Ferpa)

Every American citizen’s basic rights are protected by The Bill of Rights, however do these same rights apply to students of public schools? Students attending public schools are not protected by the rights guaranteed by the bill of rights. Aspects of the first amendment, fourth amendment, and eighth amendment do not apply to public schools. American citizen’s right of freedom of expression is a very import part of The Bill of Rights and is deprived of many students in public schools.

The United States of America has a long and complicated history of segregation and inequality. Though the country has fought fiercely to redeem itself by eradicating the practice of inequality in many areas, there are still some concerns that remain. These concerns are present in the public education system, and relate to the time-honored practice of educators to group and educate students by their ability level. This paper will discuss how students historically have been classified based on ability tracking and grouping, the legal issues created by this classification, and what the Constitution requires in order to maintain equal protection rights for all citizens.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), brain child of President Johnson, was passed in 1965. ESEA was intended to mitigate disparities in access to quality academic services and learning outcomes endured by underprivileged and minority students by federally funding schools serving their communities. ESEA, later revised as No Child Left Behind, was to be one element in a larger reform agenda focused on urban redevelopment, vocational training and “EDUCATION AND HEALTH” (Thomas & Brady, 2005). In his 1965 State of the Union, Johnson proclaimed, “No longer will we tolerate widespread involuntary idleness, unnecessary human hardship and misery, the impoverishment of whole areas… ” Nevertheless, this intractable problem remains, as illustrated by recent National Assessment of Educational Progress findings:

Privacy was once taken for granted in public education, but now through the 1974 law, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act it is pushed to the forefront of the minds of every educator in the United States (Cossler, 2010). This law has paved the way for many lawsuits regarding privacy of student’s records, which have left teachers scared, undereducated and unaware of certain regulations of the law. FERPA laws provide protections for students, but also allow access of all student records to the student’s custodial parents, which in some situations has cause problems and in some cases have specifically brought clarifications of the law. Has the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act provided the much needed privacy for students

As documented in the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta lived her childhood in the segregated rural south. There was no real inspiration for her to attend school, much less develop a strong interest in getting a formal education. Segregation contributed to a cycle of oppression and poverty that affected Henrietta’s knowledge, and quality of life. The unfair early education laws, impaired all black children’s potential to learn, and negatively affected their confidence. America has laws that intend on producing, equal education for all children regardless of economic circumstances, race, religion, or academic ability level. On the other hand, a studied by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, find that “public school, especially in the south, is becoming re-segregated at a surprising level.”(Hancock Jones) Today there is evidence that suggest public education still needs equal protection reform in order to give all children a high quality education.

FERPA is an act which regulates the student information and gives the access only to the authorized students. For maintaining such regulations there are policies and procedures which help to govern the act. The following are the policies and procedures,

The enactment of the Fair Education Act of 2006 by Congress is within its powers and does not serve as a violation of the Constitution, specifically in regard to the 5th amendment.

I am writing to make a Complaint against Millsaps College. Please find enclosed the letter written to Millsaps College President. My complaint is Millsaps College in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) failed to preserve my educational record. As an act of bad faith the College failed to disclose to me that my records were not preserved and failed to ask if I had any documents which proved my claim.

George Eastman once said, “The progress of the world depends almost entirely upon education.” By its public school system, the United States of America exemplifies this. Federally denied to none and paid by all, United States citizens have the opportunity to attend public school, should they choose. Over the past fifty years, America’s education system has undergone multiple changes. It began with President Lyndon B. Johnson signing into action the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) as an extension of his “War on Poverty” plan. ESEA funded primary and secondary education, encouraged equal access to schooling, established lofty standards and accountability - all done with the intention of closing the achievement gap

Protecting students educational and privacy rights is vitally important. Understanding FERPA will help me as an advisor in the future when I am talking with students and if they have specific questions on their rights, I can give them the correct information. As an example, US Department of Education (2017) explains that in order for a school to give information about a student to parent, written consent from the student as to be given before any information is released (US Department of Education, 2017). As an advisor, this information is critical for me to know when someone is requesting information on their child behalf. Understanding what is allowed and not allowed in the FERPA ACT is helpful for me as an advisor because I can give students information and understanding of what are their rights and how they can request information in their file. Students have a right to inspect and review their files and change those records if something is not correct. Advisors have the responsibility of helping students through this process if they need to know more information or clarification about their educational records. As an advisor, if a student has a concern about their education records and make me aware that

In 1974 the Family Educational Rights Act (FERPA) was enacted to protect student information (Polonetsky, 2014). I do believe in 1974 they had no clue what issues this act would face with technology. Take Facebook for example of how you have no protection student or not. Facebook under the agreement you sign is able to "use, copy, publicly display, publicly perform, reformat, excerpt and distribute it" (Facebook, n.d.). Because of copyright laws, things created and stored on the cloud is protected from being used. Things that were created in the cloud is subject to whatever the cloud company has as policy for protecting information.

To begin with, my greatest happiness lies in my freedom. Freedom is a service in achieving happiness, and allows people to create their own path. Choosing my own carrier by the freedom of education affects me positively and makes me happy, because some countries such as China and Iraq do not have freedom of education and cannot choose the career they were interested in. “The main attraction to Iraqi Citizen’s is their freedom, or lack of control by the Iraqi government, allowing students to decide which study and career path they would like, based on individual preference.”(Iraqi education). Due to Iraqis Government most Iraq citizens aren’t happy with their career.

Have you ever wondered why schools have the right to regulate student’s freedoms? Not only the fact that your child is under eighteen, you're letting your child walk onto the premises, which means, your child is under the schools watch. Yes, the school has the right to regulate my freedom.

Imagine if a person's privacy right was invaded and they couldn't do anything about it, would the best option be to stand up for themselves or would the best option be to let it happen to them? Privacy rights in school is a controversial topic. Some people believe that schools have the right to do whatever they feel is right in the situation no matter how wrong it might be, but other people believe that there has to be a good reason why the school invades students privacy. Students in school should have privacy rights that limit what other people can do and search because if not it causes discrimination, it causes issues with parents, and it is dangerous.

The development of the formation of the Education Act was continued in order to resolve several requests voiced by the different races in Malaysia and to improve on suggestions recommended in the Razak Report. This was known as the Rahman Talib Report (1960) and it became the basis for the formation of the 1961 Education Act. Amongst the changes and amendments made to the Razak Report were: primary education was free; primary schools became national schools and national-type schools; advanced education was extended to 15 years of age; students advanced to the next standard automatically; Islamic studies for students when there were not less than 15 students; and Moral education was given due attention.