FERPA and Virtual Learning Related Resources
As educators and students move to virtual learning during this time of social distancing
due to COVID-19, the Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) has received questions about
available resources on virtual learning and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act (FERPA). FERPA is the federal law that protects the privacy of personally identifiable
information (PII) in students鈥� education records. 鈥淓ducation records鈥� are those records
that are: (1) directly related to a student; and (2) maintained by an educational
agency or institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution. FERPA provides
parents and eligible students the right to access a student鈥檚 education records, the
right to seek to have the records amended, and the right to protect the PII in students鈥�
education records. (An 鈥渆ligible student鈥� is a student who has turned 18 or is attending
college at any age.) Under FERPA, an educational agency or institution may not disclose
PII from students鈥� education records, without consent, unless the disclosure meets
an exception under FERPA. 20 U.S.C. 1232g; 34 C.F.R. Part 99.
Two key resources on our website are:
- 鈥攖his resource identifies applicable exceptions under FERPA, including the school
official exception. This resource, while originally developed for online educational
services, is also applicable for virtual learning tools and includes best practices
for safeguarding student education records under FERPA.
- 鈥攖his checklist is a helpful tool to evaluate online educational apps
These two resources are part of our , which includes additional resources on safeguarding education records.
There are also additional resources on related topics under FERPA, including classroom
observations, use of emails, videos, and other virtual learning tools. Under FERPA,
the determination of who can observe a virtual classroom, similar to an in-person
classroom, is a local school decision as teachers generally do not disclose personally
identifiable information from a student鈥檚 education record during classroom instruction.
FERPA neither requires nor prohibits individuals from observing a classroom.
- Our on classroom observation is also applicable to virtual classrooms.
- Our video,, identifies best practices for emails.
- With regard to videos and virtual classrooms, to the extent videos are recorded and
maintained as education records, the might be useful.
Additionally, the recently-released FERPA and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
FAQs document identifies questions for school officials regarding the health or safety
emergency exception under FERPA in the context of COVID-19.
SPPO is available to assist you with your student privacy questions under FERPA. Additional
information is on our website at .
Click on for a pdf of this page.
