Department of Education dismissed my FERPA claim without sound rationale

[Zigner]

If you are there in person they can look at your ID and look at you. And you are right about the notary being able to do that. Have you explored that option?

The school is not required to make & send copies of the "records" being requested. They have already told the OP that s/he is entitled to examine them.

 

[Taxing Matters]

The school is not required to make & send copies of the "records" being requested. They have already told the OP that s/he is entitled to examine them.

The actual rule is this:

(d) If circumstances effectively prevent the parent or eligible student from exercising the right to inspect and review the student's education records, the educational agency or institution, or SEA or its component, shall—​

​

(1) Provide the parent or eligible student with a copy of the records requested; or​

​

(2) Make other arrangements for the parent or eligible student to inspect and review the requested records.​

34 CFR § 99.10(d). When copies are provided the school may charge a reasonable fee for it.

 

[Zigner]

The actual rule is this:

(d) If circumstances effectively prevent the parent or eligible student from exercising the right to inspect and review the student's education records, the educational agency or institution, or SEA or its component, shall—​

​

(1) Provide the parent or eligible student with a copy of the records requested; or​

​

(2) Make other arrangements for the parent or eligible student to inspect and review the requested records.​

34 CFR § 99.10(d). When copies are provided the school may charge a reasonable fee for it.

Thanks for posting that. Does it differ substantially from what I've stated?
Also, I'm again stating that the OP should clarify what "records" s/he wants to examine. People are often surprised at what is an "educational record" and what is not.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Does it differ substantially from what I've stated?

It is pretty much the opposite of this...

The school is not required to make & send copies of the "records" being requested.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Thanks for posting that. Does it differ substantially from what I've stated?

You can read the rule just as I can. And the rule contemplates that in some circumstances the school may indeed have to provide copies — those situations in which it simply is not possible to arrange for the student or parent to inspect them at some location provided by the school. So yes, it differs a bit from your definitive statement that:

The school is not required to make & send copies of the "records" being requested. They have already told the OP that s/he is entitled to examine them.

Your statement did not allow for the possibility that in some cases a school may need to provide copies.

 

[Zigner]

The actual rule is this:

(d) If circumstances effectively prevent the parent or eligible student from exercising the right to inspect and review the student's education records, the educational agency or institution, or SEA or its component, shall—​

​

(1) Provide the parent or eligible student with a copy of the records requested; or​

​

(2) Make other arrangements for the parent or eligible student to inspect and review the requested records.​

34 CFR § 99.10(d). When copies are provided the school may charge a reasonable fee for it.

I disagree that the school MUST provide copies...they are still allowed to "make other arrangements ... to inspect and review the requested records."

 

[Taxing Matters]

I disagree that the school MUST provide copies...they are still allowed to "make other arrangements ... to inspect and review the requested records."

I think I might see the problem. If your position is that the student cannot in all circumstances require the school to provide copies, I agree with you. But your previous statement was to the effect that the school is never required to provide copies. And it is that statement with which I disagree.

Let's suppose the following fact pattern. School A is located in Maine. The student wanting records is located Washington state. The student's circumstances effectively prevent him from inspecting the records at the school in Maine. That triggers the rule in § 99.10(d). That rule is written as mandatory — the school shall do one of the two things in that paragraph (d). Those options are (1) provide copies (for a reasonable fee) or (2) make some alternative way available for the student to inspect the records.

I'll start with (2). I can see at least two alternative ways that a school might make records available for inspection. It might provide an online portal for the student to access the records. It might have a sister campus in Washington state or a relationship with a school in that state reasonably close to the student and make the records available there. Perhaps there are other reasonable alternative ways to provide the student the opportunity to "inspect" the records. If so, all well and good, the school can do that and its obligations are satisfied under the rule.

But suppose the only way it can provide inspection is at the campus in Maine. What then? Is the student out of luck? No. Because then the school must provide copies to the student under (1). And the very fact that the Education Department provided for (1) tells you that the agency contemplated that there were situations in which it would not be possible for the school to do (2). Otherwise, it would not have put it in the rule. After all, the school always has the option to provide copies if it wants, it doesn't need anything in the rule to permit that. The rule is there to tell the school when copies must be provided. If the school can do both (1) and (2) then great, the school has a choice. But if it can't do (2) then it must provide copies.

 

[Zigner]

I think I might see the problem. If your position is that the student cannot in all circumstances require the school to provide copies, I agree with you. But your previous statement was to the effect that the school is never required to provide copies. And it is that statement with which I disagree.

Let's suppose the following fact pattern. School A is located in Maine. The student wanting records is located Washington state. The student's circumstances effectively prevent him from inspecting the records at the school Maine. That triggers the rule in § 99.10(d). That rule is written as mandatory — the school shall do one of the two things in that paragraph (d). Those options are (1) provide copies (for a reasonable fee) or (2) make some alternative way available for the student to inspect the records.

I'll start with (2). I can see at least two alternative ways that a school might make records available for inspection. It might provide an online portal for the student to access the records. It might have a sister campus in Washington state or a relationship with a school in that state reasonably close to the student and make the records available there. Perhaps there are other reasonable alternative ways to provide the student the opportunity to "inspect" the records. If so, all well and good, the school can do that and its obligations are satisfied under the rule.

But suppose the only way it can provide inspection is at the campus in Maine. What then? Is the student out of luck? No. Because then the school must provide copies to the student under (1). And the very fact that the Education Department provided for (1) tells you that the agency contemplated that there were situations in which it would not be possible for the school to do (2). Otherwise, it would not have put it in the rule. After all, the school always has the option to provide copies if it wants, it doesn't need anything in the rule to permit that. The rule is there to tell the school when copies must be provided. If the school can do both (1) and (2) then great, the school has a choice. But if it can't do (2) then it must provide copies.

Thank you for that detailed explanation - I can agree with what you are saying

 

[stealth2]

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.

I was thinking more along the lines that this is someone who can find a rights violation w/any governmental entity.

 

[pickaname]

If you are there in person they can look at your ID and look at you. And you are right about the notary being able to do that. Have you explored that option?

Proving my identity was never an issue. See below. The school exposes students to many privacy abusers (Facebook, Twitter, CloudFlare, Microsoft, Google, etc), so there is no real likeliness of the school taking data protection that seriously.

There's only one of us not being realistic here.

It's unrealistic to claim that anything less than an in-person appearance is insufficient for the purpose of obtaining high school transcripts. It's absurd. It's bizarre that you believe (for example) that a notarized, signed passport would be insufficient for protecting that kind of data. Data with much higher sensitivity (e.g. someone's credit report) needs nothing more than a snail-mailed letter with a social security number -- not even photo ID.

Not only is it absurdly unrealistic to have that expectation -- it's not even the school policy. This only came up in this thread b/c someone speculated that ID proof is the problem. I didn't go into all the details (which would fill pages), but proving ID was never an issue. The issue is form of payment:

34 CFR § 99.10(d). When copies are provided the school may charge a reasonable fee for it.

Bingo- this is where the problem is. The school demanded payment in the form of a *money order*. A money order cannot be purchased anywhere online. Students must walk into a bank or post office on US soil to get one. Getting a US money order is impossible overseas. I could have sent a bill-pay check because those services are available online, but the school would not accept a check of any kind (not even a cashiers check). The school also refused to accept cash in the mail. It had to be a money order, thus discriminating against students no longer residing on US soil.

So even more relevant is 34 CFR § 99.11(a), which states:

(a) Unless the imposition of a fee effectively prevents a parent or eligible student from exercising the right to inspect and review the student's education records, an educational agency or institution may charge a fee for a copy of an education record which is made for the parent or eligible student.

So by forcing money order to be the payment instrument, the school is breaking the law.

 

[pickaname]

What I'm saying is that I think you're confused on what authorizations you may have given.

I gave no authorizations to share my data. W.r.t the information overshare, my schooling predates the existence of scriborder.com and CloudFlare. Those companies came into the picture after I graduated. I also never used the scriborder.com service after they emerged, so I never directly gave them authorization either. Furthermore, if you visit their website it's plainly evident in the transcript ordering process that they are not obtaining consent for data sharing.

I also think it's a moot point anyway, because the school likely cannot force students to give up their FERPA rights. Such a possibility would render FERPA completely pointless and ineffective.