Educational Records ReflectionI went to an in-service about Educational Records.

You see the artifact is the

PowerPoint we received upon walking into the room. The main purpose of this inservice was to talk about complying with FERPA and IDEA. I had understanding of
these two laws because of the class School Law, however since it has been a few
years since taking the class I needed a refresher. These two laws are particularly
important in the school system. In the in-service we reviewed the law potion and
talk about how they apply to the students records.
During the time we spent time talking about parents rights to review records
and the process for receiving records and challenging records. First we talked about
FERPA and how the parents have the rights to inspect, review educational records
as well as preventing a person from seeing the same records. All staff must me
trained in the laws. The definition of a student record is an information directly
related the student and is maintained by any educational agency. Records contain
any personally identifiable information such as; name, name of parents, address,
student ID number, list of personal characteristics, and etc. School systems start to
get into trouble with e-mails and other list they may keep in their classroom that
they share with other people. We in the county, had an issue where a staff member
was sending e-mails to other staff members with information inside. When the
parent asked for the records these were send along with any other record.
When a parent request to review records FERPA and IDEA gives the district no
more than 45 days after the request is received. In order for a parent to request
records a parent/guardian must have a written request to the principal in a
reasonable time. For IDEA if the parent would like to review the records before an
IEP meeting, the request must me reasonable, if not reasonable time such as three
days before the meeting, the principal would write to the parent they can have the
records within 45 days because the pervious request is not within a reasonable
time. The principal can delegate this to an Assistant Principal to get the records
ready.
When having parents review records it can be a meeting or copies can be
made. We do not have to provide copies of the requested records unless the
circumstances prevent the parent from exercising the right. The parent may live in
another state over 50 miles, which then the principal would make copies. The school
can charge for the copies unless it effectively prevents a parent from exercising
their right to inspect their records. You may not charge for the time it takes to make
the copies (FERPA) only the paper copies themselves. If the parent does not have
transportation, in Carroll County we can use our Pupil Personnel Worker (PPW) to
pick up the parent and bring them to the school to review the records. When the
parent is reviewing the records the principal or the designee needs to be present
during all times. During the review the parent has the right to request a change to
the record. The school does not have to grant the change to the record. If the school
or school system denies the request, they must inform the parent to the right to a
hearing or appeal process.

When handling student records it important to have required information for

a non-custodial parent and parent representative. A non-custodial parent must have
a court order with information to apply the right to review the student records. The
parent representative such as an advocate or lawyer needs to have written consent
from the parent to review the student records. Ultimately the principal has the
decision for the right of individuals to have access. In Carroll County if the principal
has any question the answer is no, than they send the individual to Student
Services to give the final answer. Sometimes the educational records may be
disclosed to courts or law enforcement. Most of the time the parent need to still give
consent, unless the record was requested by subpoena. You must notify the parent
prior to the release of the records.
FEPRA and IDEA laws are very important as an administrator in the school.
The principal is going to be the first line to handle request but can defer the duties
to the assistant principal as needed. In our school we handle about ten request a
year. These request could be for 504s moving towards an IEP, but we deal with
many request from courts. For our school we need to make sure all information is up
to date with court orders and contact information so that we do not release the
information to the wrong person. Each school year we are required to do a Safe
Schools training on FERPA but I understand that most teacher are not retaining the
information the law. As an administrator I would like to add a separate training
about e-mails. It is important that teachers realize that all e-mails can be used in
the students personal records. I would add this in the first week training. I know
that we need to give teachers time in their room however, with schools committing
FERPA violations we should take the time to cover this topic. As a teacher now, the
fact that e-mails are getting the county and schools in deep water it made me more
aware of what I was sending in e-mails.