{"id":20258,"date":"2017-05-11T09:00:35","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=20258"},"modified":"2017-04-19T11:08:14","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T15:08:14","slug":"understanding-confidentiality-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/understanding-confidentiality-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Confidentiality Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Understanding%20Confidentiality%20Requirements\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>Readers ask often about protecting the privacy and confidentiality of students in the classroom. \u201cProtecting student confidentiality\u201d issues seem to get more ridiculous month by month.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter \" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/images\/istock\/rules.regs.cr.jpg\" width=\"519\" height=\"242\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In one post, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/section504-is-recording-a-lecture-a-reasonable-accommodation-school-refuses\/\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">the school refused to provide tapes of lectures<\/span><\/a> (to the parent of a child with a chronic medical disease), saying that would violate confidentiality of other students!<\/li>\n<li>Others say they were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/is-it-legal-for-a-student-to-record-class-lectures\/\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">prohibited from using a Live Scribe pen as an accommodation<\/span><\/a> because of confidentiality issues.<\/li>\n<li>One parent was told her medically dependent children could not have nursing services in a classroom because of confidentiality issues.<\/li>\n<li>Or, security videos can never be shared with parents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most parents think\u2026because many schools tell them\u2026 that because of the law (FERPA) schools must protect the confidentiality of students in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The privacy rights in the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) relate to <em><strong>education records<\/strong><\/em>, <em><strong>not<\/strong> to an individual\u2019s personal privacy.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Parents should take the time to learn what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/ferpa.index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">FERPA<\/span><\/a> protects. Learn how the law defines \u201ceducation records.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/print\/policy\/gen\/guid\/fpco\/brochures\/elsec.html\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Balancing Student Privacy and School Safety<\/span><\/a>: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act for Elementary and Secondary Schools October 2007 states:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Images of students captured on security videotapes that are maintained by the school&#8217;s law enforcement unit are not considered education records under\u00a0FERPA. Accordingly, these videotapes may be shared with parents of students whose images are on the video and with outside law enforcement authorities, as appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>Info from personal knowledge or observations can also be shared.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">FERPA\u00a0does not prohibit a school official from disclosing information about a student if the information is obtained through the school official&#8217;s personal knowledge or observation, and not from the student&#8217;s education records.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if a teacher overhears a student making threatening remarks to other students,\u00a0FERPA\u00a0does not protect that information, and the teacher may disclose what he or she overheard to appropriate authorities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More Information and Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/info\/ferpa.index.htm\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Privacy, Confidentiality, and Education Records<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/print\/policy\/gen\/guid\/fpco\/brochures\/elsec.html\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Balancing Student Privacy and School Safety<\/span><\/a>: A Guide to the\u00a0Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act\u00a0for Elementary and Secondary Schools\u00a0(October 2007) about how to balance these two issues and discusses videos and school staff knowledge and observations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/policy\/speced\/guid\/idea\/memosdcltrs\/idea-confidentiality-requirements-faq.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Understanding the Confidentiality Requirements Applicable to IDEA Early Childhood Programs<\/span><\/a> Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) (October 2016)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/policy\/gen\/guid\/ptac\/pdf\/idea-ferpa.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">IDEA\/FERPA Confidentiality<\/span><\/a>. Includes IDEA\/FERPA Confidentiality Side by Side &#8211; Compares Part B of IDEA, Part C of IDEA, and FERPA. (See p. 8-11)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Readers ask often about protecting the privacy and confidentiality of students in the classroom. \u201cProtecting student confidentiality\u201d issues seem to get more ridiculous month by month. In one post, the <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/understanding-confidentiality-requirements\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[195,199],"tags":[1324,1325,87,365],"class_list":["post-20258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-confidentiality","category-ferpa","tag-confidentiality","tag-ferpa","tag-privacy","tag-privacy-rights"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20258"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21655,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20258\/revisions\/21655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}