FERPA essentials

A parent marches into the school and demands to see everything in their child's file. FERPA decides what they can see — and one narrow exception decides what the school counselor can keep private. That exception is why examiners test this.

FERPA — the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (the Buckley Amendment) — protects the privacy of student education records at any school receiving federal funds. It gives parents the right to inspect, review, and request amendment of their child's education records, and it limits disclosure without consent.

Who holds the rights. Rights belong to the parent/guardian until the student turns 18 or enters a postsecondary institution, at which point they transfer to the student (the "eligible student").

Education records are records directly related to a student and maintained by the school — grades, transcripts, disciplinary and attendance records, and most files kept in the student's name.

The key exception for school counselors: sole-possession notes. A counselor's personal memory-aid notes — kept in the counselor's sole possession, shared with no one except a temporary substitute — are NOT education records under FERPA. The moment such a note is shared or placed in the accessible file, it becomes an education record subject to parental access. This carve-out is how school counselors preserve some confidentiality within a records law built around parent access.

Interplay with school counseling. FERPA (an education law tied to the record) governs the file; the counselor's ethical duty of confidentiality governs the relationship. School counselors must reconcile parental FERPA rights with the ACA/ASCA duty to protect student confidences — sole-possession notes are the main bridge.

Clinical Pearl: Under FERPA, parents hold the rights until the student turns 18 or enters college, and a counselor's sole-possession memory-aid notes are NOT education records — the exception that lets school counselors keep some notes private.