What is the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA)?
The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) applies to the programs and activities of a state education agency (SEA), local education agency (LEA), or other recipient of funds under any program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. It governs the administration to students of a survey, analysis, or evaluation that concerns one or more of the following eight protected areas:
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political affiliations or beliefs of the student or the student’s parent;
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mental or psychological problems of the student or the student’s family;
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sex behavior or attitudes;
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illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior;
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critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close family relationships;
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legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers;
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religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs of the student or student’s parent; or
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income (other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under such program).
PPRA also concerns marketing surveys and other areas of student privacy, parental access to information, and the administration of certain physical examinations to minors. The rights under PPRA transfer from the parents to a student who is 18 years old or an emancipated minor under state law.
What is FERPA?
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that affords parents the right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records. When a student turns 18 years old, or enters a postsecondary institution at any age, the rights under FERPA transfer from the parents to the student (“eligible student”). The FERPA statute is found at 20 U.S.C. § 1232g and the FERPA regulations are found at 34 CFR Part 99.