In an effort to remind school officials of their obligations to protect student privacy, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has issued guidance on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) that focuses on the...more
Easton Area Sch. Dist. v. Miller, 232 A.3d 716 (Pa. 2020). Pennsylvania Supreme Court holds that images of students in a school bus surveillance video are “educational records” under FERPA and must be redacted before...more
More than 50 years ago, Justice Michael Musmanno, speaking for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, eloquently expounded on the importance of the right to privacy in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: The greatest joy that can be...more
On December 19, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued an updated version of its “Joint Guidance on the Application of the Family Educational Rights and...more
School leaders are often understandably confused as to which law applies to health- or medical-related records in schools: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) or the Health Insurance Portability and...more
Arkansas schools often face parent requests to see all the school’s documents and emails about their child. Schools may wonder whether a parent has a right to such sweeping information. Federal law gives parents the right...more
As health care providers and professionals, you know that today’s regulatory environment involves multiple and sometimes overlapping frameworks that regulate and protect patient health information. Our recent Legal Alert...more
In an unpublished decision, on December 17, 2019, the Michigan Court of Appeals issued an opinion that education records are subject to disclosure under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) with redaction of...more
Among other things, the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) grants parents access to educational and related records concerning their child. Under FERPA, “education records” are broadly defined as...more
New guidance issued jointly by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advises schools that most health information relating to students at federally-funded elementary and...more
Commonwealth Court Holds That School Surveillance Videos Showing Interactions Between Adults And Students Are Not Education Records Under FERPA and Are Public Records Under The RTKL - Easton Area Sch. Dist. v. Miller, 191...more
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that gives parents, students over 18, and postsecondary students the right to access education records, the right to seek to amend those records, and the...more
Hawkins v. Central Dauphin School District, AP 2016-0583, 2016 PA O.O.R.D. LEXIS 760. The Office of Open Records reverses its earlier decision and holds that a video from a school bus video system showing an altercation...more
Regardless of what type of legal or physical custody a parent exercises, under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), all parents are provided with certain rights surrounding their ability to access their...more
In a recent decision, the Illinois Appellate Court held that it is not an unfair labor practice for a school district to refuse to release school student records to a union in a grievance proceeding without a court order or...more