View FileFebruary 14, 2003 to Bergen County, New Jersey Freeholder Louis A. Tedesco (MS Word)
Dated February 14, 2003Mr. Louis A. TedescoFreeholderCounty of BergenBoard of Chosen FreeholdersOne Bergen County Plaza, Fifth FloorHackensack, New Jersey 07601-7076Dear Mr. Tedesco:This is in response to your December 6, 2001, letter to the Department of Education regarding concerns you raised relative to the release of information on parents of students in the Bergen County Special Services School District (District). You state that the District apparently disclosed information from students' education records to a political candidate and that a campaign mailing was sent to parents of students in the District. I apologize for the late response to your inquiry; however, your letter was misdirected in the Department. This Office has been asked to respond to your letter because we administer the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law that protects the privacy of education records. FERPA is a Federal law that protects a parent's privacy interest in his or her child's education records. In particular, FERPA provides that an educational agency or institution may not have a policy or practice of denying parents the right to: inspect and review their children's education records; seek to amend education records; or consent to the disclosure of information from education records, except as provided by law. The term education records is defined as:[T]hose records, files, documents, and other materials, which (i) contain information Thank you for brining this matter to our attention. We hope that this adequately explains the scope and limitations of FERPA, as it applies to your inquiry.Sincerely,/s/LeRoy S. RookerDirectorFamily Policy Compliance Officecc:JoLeta ReynoldsOSEP