The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) provides important protections to make sure that students and families can access their school records and keep them private. Under FERPA, schools must:
Get prior consent from the parent or student (if the student is 18 or older) before releasing information from a student's educational record to a third party, unless the third party is related to a student's continued education (for example, a new school district).
Allow parents to access their child's educational records, including transcripts, when requested
Allow students to access their own educational records, including transcripts, when requested, even if they are under 18.
Privacy protections for students in temporary housing have been strengthened with the reauthorization of the McKinney-Vento Act under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which went into effect on October 1, 2016. ESSA and FERPA limit the kind of information a school district may share with third parties when verifying the eligibility of a student under McKinney-Vento. Information about a student's housing situation is now considered protected information, and can not be shared with third parties without prior consent from the parent or student. (However, MV liaisons can still share student information with a new school district to help the student enroll in school.)
