Department of Education dismissed my FERPA claim without sound rationale

[pickaname]

What is the name of your state? CA

I believe my high school has violated my FERPA rights by sharing my records with 3rd parties and also denied me access to my school records. The school completely ignored my complaint, so I reported this to the Department of Education. It's a very complex scenario with details that I won't get into here, but the DoE dismissed the case without sound rationale. It was clear from the vague form letter that they did not really consider my claims. At the same time they admitted that they are swamped with cases.

So here is my question: who is the authority that I might escellate my case to? I suspect that there's no much time to act when making a claim against the government, and over 30 days have passed since the DoE gave their dismissive response.

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state? CA

I believe my high school has violated my FERPA rights by sharing my records with 3rd parties and also denied me access to my school records. The school completely ignored my complaint, so I reported this to the Department of Education. It's a very complex scenario with details that I won't get into here, but the DoE dismissed the case without sound rationale. It was clear from the vague form letter that they did not really consider my claims. At the same time they admitted that they are swamped with cases.

So here is my question: who is the authority that I might escellate my case to? I suspect that there's no much time to act when making a claim against the government, and over 30 days have passed since the DoE gave their dismissive response.

Who is the third party? Did you go in person to get a copy of your transcripts?

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

One would think that the next step would be in Federal District Court.

 

[Zigner]

If you aren't going to go in to details here, then there's nothing we can help you with. I would suggest that you start reaching out to attorney's that specialize in education law matters.

 

[stealth2]

p/x

 

[Zigner]

This OP's posting history doesn't seem to be related to the current question.

That WAS going to be my response, except that I know realize that this OP appears to just be doing homework.

 

[pickaname]

> Who is the third party?

I'm not sure how this level of detail could be relevant to finding out who's above the DoE on the org chart or what the appeal process is, but I'll answer in case it triggers useful advice for later use when a path of appeal is realized.

Scriborder.com and cloudflare are the 3rd parties. My interpretation of FERPA is that the school may legally contract the maintenance of transcripts to a 3rd party who then has access to student records, but then that 3rd party may not further share the information on to yet another 3rd party. So I'm alleging that when scriborder.com shares student data with a secondary third party (CloudFlare Inc), it is a violation of my privacy rights under FERPA.

Furthermore, apart from what I believe is unlawful info sharing, CloudFlare blocks access to the scriborder.com website in various circumstances (often Tor users), the effect of which forces students to access the resource outside of the Tor network, which ultimately forces students to disclose their residential IP address to CloudFlare, which can then be aggregated with other online activity resulting in further abuse of the privacy of students. The entitlement of access to a student's own records does not include the forced sharing of the student's IP address data. CloudFlare makes access conditional on students revealing their home IP address.

> Did you go in person to get a copy of your transcripts?

No; I was overseas. I claimed that FERPA entitles me to access to my records for the purpose of checking their accuracy. The DoE said while it's true that I have access rights, the school is not required to give me "a copy" of the records. The DoE's stance is that if a record exists, I can appear *in person* to see the existing records. Legality aside, from a practical standpoint, who pays for airfare around the world to appear in person where those records sit? In this case, it seems the school is within the strict wording of the law to (effectively) block access by way of making distribution extremely impractical (yet possible). In this specific aspect of my overall claim, I probably need to be talking to a lawmaker to fix the loophole. (edit: actually the school is in fact violating 34 CFR § 99.11(a) -- see this post)

I'd prefer not to get too off track here. These details don't seem to matter w.r.t. finding out who has oversight on whether the DoE is doing their job. I know the POTUS appointed the head of the DoE. Does that mean the only office above the DoE is The White House?

 

[Zigner]

> Did you go in person to get a copy of your transcripts?

No; I was overseas. I claimed that FERPA entitles me to access to my records for the purpose of checking their accuracy. The DoE said while it's true that I have access rights, the school is not required to give me "a copy" of the records. The DoE's stance is that if a record exists, I can appear *in person* to see the existing records. Legality aside, from a practical standpoint, who pays for airfare around the world to appear in person where those records sit? In this case, it seems the school is within the strict wording of the law to (effectively) block access by way of making distribution extremely impractical (yet possible). In this specific aspect of my overall claim, I probably need to be talking to a lawmaker to fix the loophole.

Now, there's the rub (for this point). You stated that your FERPA claim was dismissed without "sound rationale" which is a conclusion you reached. An incorrect conclusion. The law is the law. You can go see your records, but you can't force them to provide you with a copy. They are not blocking access to anything. I don't know what "loophole" you are referring to...

 

[pickaname]

Now, there's the rub (for this point). You stated that your FERPA claim was dismissed without "sound rationale" which is a conclusion you reached. An incorrect conclusion. The law is the law. You can go see your records, but you can't force them to provide you with a copy. They are not blocking access to anything.

I believe that when I come to the DoE with many claims citing several laws that are violated, if they can correctly rationalize just one of the the many, this does not constitute sound rationale for dismissing the entire complaint. I won't go as far as to say the rationale for claiming access was granted is "sound", but while it is /something/, a good lawyer could perhaps successfully argue that giving walk-in access to records to someone who sits on the other side of the world is not giving access, in effect. More importantly, the DoE gave no rationale at all for allowing a 3rd party to share student data with another 3rd party. They didn't leave the point entirely unaddressed, but what they did was say that a school may share student records with a 3rd party. And I know that already. My claim is that the 3rd party cannot further share the information with another 3rd party. I believe the school is required by FERPA to ensure their contract with 3rd parties blocks extended sharing to other 3rd parties.

> I don't know what "loophole" you are referring to...

When a student cannot appear physically in person to examine the transcripts, the school can cannot say "not my problem, we're giving you access and if you cannot make the trip around the world to appear physically that's your problem". That's the loophole by which a school may effectively deny access. To close this loophole, the law needs to entitle a student to receiving copies of their records in the mail. (edit: sorry, it's not a loophole.. it turns out the school is bluntly breaking the law).

 

[Taxing Matters]

So here is my question: who is the authority that I might escellate my case to? I suspect that there's no much time to act when making a claim against the government, and over 30 days have passed since the DoE gave their dismissive response.

You cannot sue the DOE to force it to act. Nor is there any private right of action available to you under FERPA. You may have a remedy against the school itself under state law, however, but the details of what the school did and your state's law would matter.

 

[Just Blue]

I believe that when I come to the DoE with many claims citing several laws that are violated, if they can correctly rationalize just one of the the many, this does not constitute sound rationale for dismissing the entire complaint. I won't go as far as to say the rationale for claiming access was granted is "sound", but while it is /something/, a good lawyer could perhaps successfully argue that giving walk-in access to records to someone who sits on the other side of the world is not giving access, in effect. More importantly, the DoE gave no rationale at all for allowing a 3rd party to share student data with another 3rd party. They didn't leave the point entirely unaddressed, but what they did was say that a school may share student records with a 3rd party. And I know that already. My claim is that the 3rd party cannot further share the information with another 3rd party. I believe the school is required to ensure their contract with 3rd parties blocks extended sharing to other 3rd parties.

> I don't know what "loophole" you are referring to...

When a student cannot appear physically in person to examine the transcripts, the school can say "not my problem, we're giving you access and if you cannot make the trip around the world to appear physically that's your problem". That's the loophole by which a school may effectively deny access. To close this loophole, the law needs to entitle a student to receiving copies of their records in the mail.

Unless you appear in person there is NO WAY for the school to know who you are. No school releases transcripts to someone without them appearing in person.

 

[Taxing Matters]

No school releases transcripts to someone without them appearing in person.

Some do. I've gotten transcripts from law schools I've attended without the need to show up in person, for example.

 

[Zigner]

The OP should clarify what it meant by "records". "Records" goes beyond "transcripts".

 

[pickaname]

You cannot sue the DOE to force it to act. Nor is there any private right of action available to you under FERPA. You may have a remedy against the school itself under state law, however, but the details of what the school did and your state's law would matter.

I appreciate the tip, but note that I'm not really interested in a personal remedy. I went to the DoE because I wanted the DoE to pressure the school to start to abide by FERPA for the benefit of future students. Now that the DoE refused to do their job, I want the DoE to get an "F" on their report card. I'd be satisfied if some kind of public record were made that the DoE did not do their job, ideally seen by whoever the DoE answers to. If that's simply POTUS, then I guess it's a lost cause.

 

[Just Blue]

Some do. I've gotten transcripts from law schools I've attended without the need to show up in person, for example.

OP is talking about his high school. I should have been clearer in my post to him.