The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA 1974) or the Buckley Amendment addresses educational records, more so the release of such records by institutions getting federal funds. Student records can be released with written consent from the student to external sources or can be obtained by college officials with legitimate interests such as advisers who hope to evaluate the academic progress of the members. Advisers are still encouraged to either get consent from the student or request a copy of the records from the student. Educational records show patterns when considered carefully. For instance, a member can be a “B” average student before participating in an organization but her grade may either fall or become better indicating some sort of relation. In this case, as an adviser, I am posed with the responsibility of helping students balance the best of both worlds. Not every student member will be forthcoming about their academic sanding but when a student opens up about a situation, I will use the appropriate referral source like tutoring services offered by the department or support services.
Another federal policy is The Campus Sex Crimes Act and Higher Education Opportunity Act both deal with sexual misconduct. While the Campus Sex Crimes Act ensures that all students, staff who are offenders register their conduct in a system, the Higher Education Act makes room for any disciplinary or investigative proceedings to be detailed to the victim or a next
Sexual assault is defined by the department of justice as: any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. Women aged 18-24, in college, are three times greater at risk than the average woman any age. (RAINN). The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has 246 ongoing investigations into how 195 colleges and universities handled sexual assault under Title IX. (Huffington Post). Many ask, Why on college campuses? Why have these statistics been rising? For a rapist or an assaulter, college is
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.
Jade does not receive adequate treatment from her counselor when reporting a recent sexual assault. Her integrity is questioned, and the counselor advises her to forget the incident ever happened. The rapist receives no punishment or consequences for his actions. Cases similar to this hypothetical situation occur regularly. Victims of sexual assault often resort to dropping their cases due to the lack of support and services offered by the college. Students continue to fight for the fair treatment of everyone on campus. The problem with reporting sexual assault during college lies in the unfair treatment of the victims and the limited consequences and punishment for the rapist. Colleges have attempted to lower
On the topic of sexual assault on campuses, Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights and James Moore, Compliance Manager of the Clery Act discussed ways to further combat sexual assault on college campuses. Lhamon and Moore focused on the improvements made to the reporting of sexual assault, positive changes made to the judicial proceedings on campuses, and the improved punishment of perpetrators. The members of the committee hearing did not deny the importance of combating sexual assault. However, members did disagree on the methods to effectively decrease sexual assault and increase overall reporting of victims. Members disagreed the most on the enforcement mechanism, which was made more controversial by the differences in opinion on the accuracy of reporting, and the guidance authority of the Department of Education. This ballot will address the panel discussion on these
In the article “College Kids Have Too Much Privacy,” Michele Willins explains how FERPA, a program that means parents have no right to know how their children are doing in school, is not only hurting college students’ future but also how frightening it can be to oblivious parents who have no idea about this privacy policy. Even the best students can be academically challenged when they go to college. Parents would have no idea that their child is struggling because he or she has succeeded in school thus far. Even if college students are not the best in a school setting, the parents would have no idea if he or she is failing out of classes because officials are not allowed to let the parents know. This marks a major flaw in the FERPA organization.
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.
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
Ten years from the initial groundwork, in 1998, a provision was made that no longer made the outcomes of a student’s disciplinary case involving violence or non-forcible sex offenses protected from disclosure under federal laws concerning the privacy of students (Clery Center, n.d.). There was also an amendment made that eliminated loopholes in the policy. Eliminating loopholes, the amendment mandated daily security department logs of crime and expanded the requirements that included areas off-campus. Two years later, an amendment called the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act required appropriate law enforcement officials to add to the Annual Security Report a statement about how to find information about registered sex offenders in and around the area. In 2008, the Higher Education Opportunity Act widened the Clery Act scope. Emergency response and notification provisions were expanded, hate crimes categorization for reporting was broadened, there were safeguards for whistleblowers implemented, and finally, the Department of Education is required to annually report on Clery Act compliance. Following a landmark decision, in 2013, the Violence Against Women
(3) Schools must be proactive in ensuring that your campus is free of sex discrimination. If a school knows or reasonably should know about discrimination, harassment or violence that is creating a “hostile environment” for any student, it must act to eliminate it, remedy the harm caused and prevent its recurrence. (4) They must also have a procedure for handling complaints of sex discrimination/sexual harassment or sexual violence; (5) the school must also take IMMEDIATE ACTION when a complaint is filled to ensure that the victims can progress with their education. (6) Your school may not retaliate against someone filing a complaint and must keep a victim safe from other retaliatory harassment or behavior. (7) Your school can issue a no contact directive under Title IX to prevent the accused student from approaching or interacting with you. (8) In cases of sexual violence, your college is prohibited from encouraging or allowing mediation (rather than a formal hearing) of the complaint. (9) Your college should not make you pay the costs of certain accommodations that you require in order to continue your education after experiencing
After the passage of the Clery Act sexual harassment, gender discrimination, sexual violence, and other crimes were all top priority on college campuses. Russo (2014) states the Jenny Cleary disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, commonly called the Cleary act, is a federal law enacted in 1990 for the purpose of providing college and university students with important information about campus crime and security policies at the higher education institutions they attend. The following information reviews the purpose and provisions to the act and what has changed with the act over the years. Russo (2014) references a scholarly commentary describing the Clery Act the laws main goal was to ensure that
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:
Despite federal laws issued to combat sexual violence, each year 4,000 college women report to school officials that they've been sexually assaulted. What happens after they file those reports has stirred debate on campuses across the country, leaving parents and students fearful that colleges may not be the ivory towers of security and integrity that appear on their recruitment pamphlets.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that guarantees educational services to eligible students with disabilities. It establishes “people first” language for referring to people with disabilities. IDEA requires states to educate students with disabilities for transition to employment, and to provide transition services. IDEA also provides the students with a free and appropriate education If a student with a disability is expelled from school, IDEA says that he or she must still receive educational services. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates that all students with disabilities take state and district testing. This law also requires a general education teacher to be a member of the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) team.
Sexual assault has been a huge issue for many years on college campuses and universities nation wide. As society has evolved, thoughts on sexual assault have also evolved, becoming more focused on the details of victim treatment than ever before. The topic of sexual assault is debatable and sparks many opinions on weather sexual assault on college campuses is becoming more frequent, or if there is just heightened awareness. Sexual assault can happen to anybody no matter the gender, race, religion, or age. Recently there have been many studies conducted on sexual violence on college campuses and universities producing ample amounts of statistics. One may argue that sexual assault rates are the same, but there are simply more studies and attention on sexual assault in the past 20 years. Gender roles have played a huge part in sexual assault on college campuses. Women and men have different expectations when it comes to roles in the relationship, men are often expected to make the first move. One may ask what causes a perpetrator to sexually harass somebody and think it is acceptable. There are various reasons as to why perpetrators do what they do, and may vary from person to person. Although sexual violence is a large problem for many colleges and universities, there is a surprising shortage of federal laws/rules and regulations regarding sexual assault. Colleges are able to develop their own personal policies and procedures for how they will prevent and deal with sexual
The Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA) had an overall goal of desegregating disabled children in schools, as well as work on integrating them in classrooms with their non-disabled peers. Until the Civil Rights Movement, not much attention was brought to the fact that children with disabilities had very little rights and were kept isolated and not given a proper education, if any at all. Because of the attention brought to the poor and unjust treatment of children with disabilities and the significant court cases dealing with the fourteenth amendment such as Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia, The EHA was passed in 1975. There were high hopes for this act, including keeping disabled students integrated