The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords parents and students over 18 years of age (“eligible students”) certain rights with respect to the student’s education records.
These rights are:
The right to inspect and review the student’s education records within 45 days of the day the school receives a request for access. Parents or eligible students should submit to the school principal a written request that identifies the record(s) they wish to inspect.
The right to request the amendment of the student’s education records that the parent or eligible student believes are inaccurate or misleading. Parents or eligible students may ask the school to amend a record that they believe is inaccurate or misleading. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to the parent or eligible student when the request is made.
The right to consent to disclosures or personally identifiable information contained in the student’s education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent. It is the District’s policy to disclose personally identifiable information from student records, without consent, to other school officials within the District whom the District has determined to have legitimate educational interests.
For purposes of this policy, a school official is a person employed by the District as an administrator, supervisor, instructor, or support staff member (including health or medical staff and law enforcement unit personnel); a member of the Board of Education; a person or company with whom the District has contracted to perform a special task (such as an attorney, auditor, medical consultant, or therapist); or a parent of student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee, or assisting another school official performing his or her tasks.
A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official need to review a student record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibilities. Upon request, the school discloses education records without consent to officials of another school district in which a student seeks or intends to enroll, as well as school officials with a legitimate educational interest or an authorized representative.
The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the school to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the office that administers FERPA are: Family Policy Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20202-4605.
The Right to Request That Student Directory Information Be Withheld
Valley Central has designated the following personally identifiable information contained in a student’s education record as “directory information” and it may disclose that information without prior written consent, at its discretion.
- Student’s name
- Student’s major field of study
- Student’s participation in officially recognized activities and sports
- Student’s degrees and awards received
- Student’s photograph
The purpose of establishing directory information is to avoid the need to obtain individual parental consent each time the District might wish to publicly recognize an individual student or group accomplishments. Directory information is considered public information and may be distributed without obtaining prior parental consent.
Parents or guardians who do not wish to have their child/ren included within the directory information as described above are to annually notify the Office of the Superintendent in writing within 14 days of the publication of this notice in the annual Calendar/VCSD Guide. Parents/guardians may object to any or all of the five items listed above.
No information which has been objected to in writing will be distributed without prior consent from the parent or guardian. Additionally, military recruiters, upon appropriate request, will be provided access to secondary school students’ names, addresses and telephone numbers, unless parents notify the District, in writing, at the commencement of the school year, that they do not wish such information to be provided to military recruiters without their prior written consent.
Finally, if you do not want your child’s photograph to be used on a District website, please write a letter to that effect to your child’s Principal within 14 days of the publication of this notice in the annual Calendar/VCSD Guide newsletter. This must be submitted annually.
If you have questions regarding access to student information, please contact the Data Protection Officer, Tammy Coleman at (845) 457-2400 ext. 18120