FERPA in Litigation
Date:
Feb. 3, 2026
Time:
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 C.F.R. Part 99) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. It applies to any school that receives funds from the U.S. Department of Education and gives parents (and students 18 or older) rights, such as the ability to access records and control the disclosure of their personal information. FERPA protects improper disclosure of "personally identifiable information" (PII) but also provides for exceptions to that prohibition. In our recent multi-plaintiff litigation on behalf of students abused and neglected in a so-called therapeutic school, counsel for the defense improperly invoked FERPA to frustrate plaintiff's discovery requests and we prevailed on a motion to compel about the meaning of "directory information" and the notice requirements for the defendant school in order to release the requested student contacts.
FERPA is one of the "other statutes" that may prohibit disclosure for public records under the Washington Public Records Act. FERPA also provides for a mechanism by which students can amend their comprehensive files in a proactive effort to ensure accurate record-keeping.
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