Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or Felpaprotect personally identifiable information contained in education records from unauthorized disclosure. For nearly half a century, this law has given parents privacy rights over their children’s education records. In fact, August 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of FERPA. As FERPA approaches its golden birthday, FPF takes a closer look at some of its finer points and how they’re actually working 50 years later. In this blog post, we will examine one of the FERPA exceptions to obtain parental consent before disclosing a student’s personal information: the “Learning Exception.”.

Access to school and research data

Given the wording of the phrase “research exception” and the fact that this exception allows student data to be shared with researchers under certain conditions, the concepts of research exception and general “research” exception may be confused. is not uncommon. Perhaps this blog post came to your attention after searching for the School Research Act or how to conduct research under FERPA? Some may be surprised to learn that FERPA does not have any research exceptions. No provision of the law allows us to share student information publicly for research purposes without parental consent.

Although there is no general exception for research under FERPA, various types of student data are still essential for many research purposes. Researchers may be interested in original data created and collected specifically for a particular research project (primary research), such as interviews, focus groups, observations, and surveys. or data collection through third party applications. You may also be interested in using existing datasets collected as a by-product of natural educational processes (secondary research), such as administrative or evaluation records. Use primary or secondary research to inform Longitudinal or correlational studies This may be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of using student data in research. However, it has an incredibly wide range of uses beyond the purely academic purposes often associated with researchers. Any role in the process of improving instruction is likely to address student data exploration. Student data can help inform the effectiveness of a particular assessment product. This helps EDTech vendors and community partners determine whether learning objectives are being met using their products and programs. This is also important for teachers who conduct action research or write a dissertation as a requirement for a master’s degree in education. School staff may be responsible for designing or approving data extraction for use by researchers. The wide range of research uses of student data all benefit from access to student data. Consider the security and privacy requirements necessary to reap the benefits.

FERPA and Research Exceptions

To access the educational records data needed for research purposes, researchers must meet the requirements of FERPA, state-specific laws, and district and state policies. The general rules under FERPA are as follows: Parental consent required Before disclosing personally identifiable information from a student’s academic history, unless an exception applies. Written parental consent must specify the records that may be disclosed, state the purpose of the disclosure, and identify the persons to whom the disclosure is made. If researchers wish to collect new data from students, a more detailed consent may be appropriate, even if exceptions apply.

Felpa exception Refers to any condition or situation in which parental consent is not first required to be obtained before disclosing personally identifiable information from a student’s academic record. Parental consent is not required when sharing student data based on . research exceptionIf certain requirements are met. Personally identifiable information obtained from educational records may be disclosed in connection with certain research conducted “for or on behalf of” a school, school district, or institution of higher education. For the FERPA research exception to apply, those studies must be for a specific purpose.

• • For purposes of developing, validating, or administering predictive tests.
  • For purposes of administering student aid programs.
  • or for the purpose of improving instruction.

Additionally, a written agreement is required between the school and the researcher conducting the study. A written contract must do several things, including:

• • Specify the purpose, scope, and duration of the study and the information to be disclosed.
  • The host organization (or researcher) will then request the following:
    • Use personally identifiable information only to meet research objectives.
    • Conducting research in a manner that does not permit the identification of parents or students by anyone other than representatives of organizations with a legitimate interest. and
    • Destroy personally identifiable information upon completion of the study and specify the period within which the information must be destroyed.

Compliance with these requirements is mandatory and failure to comply may result in issues such as: influence. For example, if the Department of Education determines that a researcher has inappropriately re-disclosed personally identifiable information from education records, the educational institution from which the personally identifiable information originated may be required to We may not allow you to access your personally identifiable information for at least five years. year.

Even if the requirements of the FERPA Research Exception are met, researchers do not have the right to access student data. Exceptions for FERPA research include public data requests and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request Do: There is no absolute public right for would-be student data researchers (or anyone, for that matter) to request necessary student information from schools. Public data or FOIA requests do not require schools to create data that does not already exist (which includes creating new reports on existing data), which is required by many proposed studies. The FERPA research exception makes clear that the research institution that authorizes the research is not required to initiate the research. This means schools can comply with or approve researchers’ requests. However, we are not required to approve all research requests. Schools may also reject research requests. Additionally, even if a school allows student data to be used for research, the school is not required to agree with or approve the study’s conclusions.

written agreement

School districts tasked with developing written consent forms that comply with FERPA research exception requirements do not have to start completely from scratch. Excellent resources exist to assist you in this mission. The U.S. Department of Education guidance Best practices for written agreements required under FERPA’s research exception. Their guidance includes a number of recommendations for moving forward with these agreements. For example, it is recommended that written contracts bind not only the organization conducting the research but also the individuals. Include an agreement not to redevelop data collected or used for related research. Designate a data controller or administrator Persons directly responsible for managing relevant student data. Other best practices include clarifying ownership of personally identifiable information from education records, identifying clear penalties for misuse or breach of contract, and setting responsible and appropriate conditions for data destruction; This includes allowing schools to review and approve reported results. It is also a best practice to inform the public about written agreements related to school learning. transparency and build trust. of Student Data Privacy Consortium‘s National Research Data Privacy Agreement (NRDPA) is a model contract specifically designed to standardize the various components required for secondary research exception research. The NRDPA is intended to be a part of, not a replacement for, the district’s broader research data approval policy. Before simply adopting the NRDPA, districts should review the NRDPA with their general counsel to determine how it supports existing research policies.

District research policy

Administrative procedures often already exist to support FERPA compliance for research data requests. Most schools already have policies in place regarding research approval. Researchers may be familiar with research ethics, but they may not understand the basics of student privacy. They may not be fully aware of the risks to student privacy and security or the potential harm from misuse or inappropriate sharing of student data. And research at universities is probably Institutional Review Board (IRB) policies to ensure that research conducted is compliant, ethical, and protects participants, but this may not be sufficient to protect student privacy. IRBs may interpret FERPA narrowly. Additionally, some types of research, such as big data research, may be exempt from institutional review board approval, making informed consent nearly impossible to obtain. A district’s robust research policy is one way to protect the privacy of student data while still benefiting from research on it.

Research policies may include guidelines for conducting primary research data, requesting secondary data, developing strong definitions, and providing an applicable legal framework. Chicago Public School District External Research and Data Collection Guidelines. The policy may also indicate who can conduct research, what to do if a conflict of interest arises, and how the research proposal and approval process will work. Boston Public Schools Policies and Guidelines for Conducting Educational Research. Because of the high risk of harm from misuse of student data, some school districts have adopted policies such as: Palm Beach County Schools Research Policy – It could even require researchers who collect or access students’ personal information to submit to background checks and provide evidence of good moral character.

Researchers interested in collaborating with a specific school district should search for that school district’s research policy or contact us. School districts without an existing research policy should strongly consider creating a research policy, paying close attention to FERPA requirements and support for student data privacy and security. The National Education Statistics Forum has a guide to support data access for researchers, supporting both perspectives. Perspective of local education agency And then State Education Agency Perspective.

The conclusion is

Research conducted using student data serves a wide range of purposes and, if done properly and safely, can have similarly wide-ranging outcomes. advantage. Research supports individual learner and student success and provides information to inform decisions such as building curriculum and developing new instructional programs. Before collaborating with schools to collect new data or use existing data, researchers need to think critically about the type of data they need and, more importantly, the type of data they really need. There is. Is personally identifiable information about students really needed or required for research? Aggregated data Is it enough? will do Anonymized data? . Researchers must work closely with schools to support student data privacy, strictly adhere to school research policies, and implement recommended best practices under the FERPA research exception. School districts that agree to share student data with researchers must develop and maintain strong research policies that keep both FERPA compliance and the privacy and security of student data in mind. FERPA’s 50 years have taught us that engaging with these practices by both participating schools and researchers will help support student data privacy for the next 50 years as well.