WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new
change to federal regulations specifies
that school transportation workers may
be designated as “school officials” to receive
information from student records.
The Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA) amendment,
which the Department of Education
(DOE) put into effect in January, clarifies
to whom a school system may disclose
personally identifiable information
from students’ educational records.
School transportation workers employed
by the district and those employed
by contractors are included in
the DOE’s final rule.
“At the discretion of a school,
school officials may include school
transportation officials (including
bus drivers), school nurses, practicum
and fieldwork students, unpaid
interns, consultants, contractors, volunteers
and other outside parties
providing institutional services and
performing institutional functions,”
the DOE wrote.
FERPA requires parental consent to
disclose student information, except
under certain conditions.
One condition is if the disclosure
is to other school officials, including
teachers, who have “legitimate educational
interests.”
Last year, pupil transportation groups
submitted comments to the DOE asking
that it include school transportation
employees and contractors.
“It has long been a complaint of
special-needs transportation providers
that they do not receive critical information
about students’ conditions
because of schools’ concerns over
confidentiality,” the National School
Transportation Association (NSTA)
wrote in a recent newsletter. “This rule
should end that concern.”
NSTA noted that school districts still
have to explain in their annual FERPA
notifications to parents how they determine
a “legitimate educational interest”
and which outside parties have
been designated as school officials.