Safeguarding Student Privacy and Parental Rights: A Review of FERPA and PPRA
House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
2025-12-03
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Source: Congress.gov
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Mrs. Deborah Figliola
The Supreme Court, likewise, has affirmed the vital role parents play in raising and guiding their children. Congress has long recognized this, too. In 1974, Congress passed two laws to reinforce the importance of parental rights. First, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA, guarantees parents access to their child's education record and ensures that their child's information will not be shared inappropriately with third parties. Second, the Protection of Pupils Rights Amendment, or PPRA, requires public schools to obtain consent from parents before administering to students any survey, analysis, or evaluation that addresses certain sensitive topics. The PPRA also requires public schools to make curriculum available to parents for review and protects other parental rights. Unfortunately, some states and school districts are failing to uphold the protections for parents contained in these laws. For example, Defending Education maintains a database that shows that as of earlier this year, 1,215 school districts educating more than 12 million students maintain policies of allowing or requiring school personnel to hide basic information from parents, such as the name their child uses in school and the gender the child identifies with. In some cases, districts are even creating dummy files on students for the specific purpose of deceiving parents on these matters. In addition, school districts are evading the PPRA by making it difficult for parents to access curriculum. For example, some school districts evade obligations under the PPRA by forcing parents to pay fees to review curriculum under state or federal freedom of information laws. The growing use of education technology can also lead to FERPA and PPRA violations when safeguards are not in place to protect student information.
Now to be clear, this discussion is not about situations where a child's safety is at risk. Existing state and federal laws, along with mandatory reporting requirements for educators, already address those issues. Rather, the issue before us is about how best to protect and support children by respecting the rights of parents. This should not be a partisan issue. FERPA and PPRA were enacted decades ago with strong bipartisan support because members of both parties believed in the central role of parental engagement when it comes to a child's education and well-being. I hope through this hearing we can return to that consensus, recognizing that transparency and partnership with parents are essential and that keeping parents in the dark is wrong. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about how these laws are working and the threats to parental rights currently faced in our nation's schools. And with that, I will turn to the ranking member for an opening statement.
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Mr. Matt Sharp
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the witnesses for being here. First and foremost, I want to make abundantly clear that parental engagement is important to student success. It's been proven that when families are involved in their children's education, students perform better academically, have better behavior, and develop stronger social skills. And we all want the best for our children. And that includes strong, supportive relationships between home and school. On that, Mr. Chairman, we agree. We all agree on that. But I expect that the conversation we're having today is not about finding new ways to get parents involved in their children's education. Unfortunately, nor will it be about protecting students' privacy, which is also what we should be doing. It's about parents who think it's their right to impose their beliefs on everyone. So instead of empowering parents to be engaged in their children's education, this is about forcing teachers into situations where they are expected to violate the trust students place in them. That kind of breach has the potential to undermine the foundation of the student-teacher relationship, which is a relationship based on trust and care. Students need to feel safe and be safe and supported in school, and that begins with a teacher who's there to guide them without fear of compromising that trust. The reality is that in some circumstances, when teachers are forced to disclose information, they may jeopardize a student's safety or well-being. That may result in risking that student's trust, but also risking their academic and emotional success. When students can't trust their teachers, it affects their ability to learn, grow, and succeed. It's as simple as that. It's also important to remember that children are constantly changing and evolving. I know. I raised two of them. They may experiment with names, identities, and interests. And forcing teachers to out every student every time they want to go by a different name or engage in some form of self-expression is an unrealistic expectation and disrupts this teacher-student bond.
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Mr. Matt Sharp
Here's an example, children like Robert who prefers his nickname Bobby. That's just one example of the shifts that students make as they grow.
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