Despite what you may have heard, education, especially higher education, in the US is highly regulated by some very coercive regulations, usually tied to school participation in federal financial aid programs (talk about your unfunded mandates, oh my).
FERPA is a decades old law that regulates the ability of schools to release private student information to third parties without the student's explicit permission. Every now and again, someone in Congress gets a bright idea how to improve legislation that actually works fairly well. I'm informed by AACRAO, the professional organization of Registrars and Admissions Officers, that there are two more doozies working their way through the House this week.
AACRAO is a relatively tiny organization, so if you can spare a call or an email to your rep to stop these disasters now, my colleagues and I would sincerely appreciate it. Text below is taken from an AACRAO press release.
AACRAO Opposes Rep. Gingrey's Amendment to FERPA
Tomorrow, Thursday February 7th, the House of Representatives is set to consider legislation reauthorizing the Higher Education Act. AACRAO has just become aware of an amendment to be brought by Rep. Gingrey of Georgia that would make non-consensual release of non-directory information to parents of tax dependent students mandatory. Under current law, such releases are permitted, subject to institutional discretion and prior notice to students.
The consensus of the AACRAO Public Policy Task Force, which has reviewed the Gingrey amendment, is that the language is problematic for several reasons:
- The amendment simplistically equates tax-dependency as an indication of a functional parent/child relationship, and makes no exceptions for tough cases like estrangement, abuse, or financial support pursuant to a court order.
- The amendment may well drive students most in help of counseling or medical services away from campus officials.
- The amendment imposes enormous compliance burdens on campuses. Colleges and universities will face significant difficulties in determining dependency status in some cases.
- The amendment is not necessary since current law already allows colleges to release non-directory information to parents while also allowing schools to withhold information where appropriate.
AACRAO has sent a letter of opposition to Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. We urge you to visit http://capwiz.com/... and contact your Representative ON THURSDAY to register opposition to this amendment if it is actually offered on the House floor. The AACRAO Capwiz link above will also provide updates on the status of Rep. Gringey's amendment, including whether his bill is pulled prior to consideration.
The full text of the amendment is available at: http://www.aacrao.org/...
If you're wondering what drives up the cost of education, it's stuff like this. For a large school, compliance with a regulation like this can translate into one or even two full-time staff positions dedicated to keeping data about the student's dependency status current. That's staffing that can't be tasked with doing something useful and directly related to the school's educational mission.
AACRAO Opposes Rep. Shuler's Amendment Authorizing Grants for Unit-Record Data Systems
The proposed amendment would authorize the Department of Education to provide federal grants to support the creation of state-level databases of individually identifiable information about students at multiple institutions within each participating state. As the association of campus privacy professionals, AACRAO objects to the creation of such "unit-record" data systems because of the gross violation of individual privacy they represent. American citizens who seek no federal or state financial assistance have the right to enroll in institutions of their choice without being tagged and tracked for life.
Curiously, and quite incoherently, at the same time as the amendment authorizes a program that is inherently and irrevocably incommensurable with the most basic requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1965 (FERPA), it also includes language that would require applicants to explain how they would avoid violating FERPA!
AACRAO has sent a letter of opposition to Rep. Louise Slaughter, chair of the House Rules Committee. We urge you to visit http://capwiz.com/... and contact your Representative ON THURSDAY to register opposition to this amendment if it is actually offered on the House floor. The AACRAO Capwiz link above will also provide updates on the status of Rep. Gringey's amendment, including whether his bill is pulled prior to consideration.
The full text of the Shuler amendment is available at: http://www.aacrao.org/...
I really don't have anything to add to the second notice except that I agree with AACRAO's position that it's really none of the government's business what classes individuals are enrolled in. FISA isn't the alpha and omega of privacy. The little stuff counts, too.