AMS FERPA POLICY

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are "eligible students."

• Parents or eligible students have the right to inspect and review the student's education records maintained by the school within 45 days of a request made to the school administrator. Schools are not required to provide copies of records unless it is impossible for parents or eligible students to review the records without copies. Schools may charge a fee for copies.

• Parents or eligible students have the right to request in writing that a school correct records that they believe to be inaccurate or misleading. If the school decides not to amend the record, the parent or eligible student then has the right to a formal hearing. After the hearing, if the school still decides not to amend the record, the parent or eligible student has the right to place a statement with the record setting forth his or her view about the contested information.

• Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions:

School officials with legitimate educational interest
A school official is a person employed or contracted by the school to serve as an administrator, supervisor, teacher, or support staff member (including health staff, law enforcement personnel, attorney, auditor, or other similar roles); a person serving on the school board; or a parent or student serving on an official committee or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks;
A legitimate educational interest means the review of records is necessary to fulfill a professional responsibility for the school;
Other schools to which a student is seeking to enroll;
Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
Accrediting organizations;
To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law

Directory Information

Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information which has been specifically identified as such unless notified by the parents or eligible student that the school is not to disclose the information without consent.

The Academy of Math and Science has a limited directory information policy, under which director information will be disclosed only for specific purposes and to specific parties.

AMS has identified student name, grade, homeroom class, student photographs, honors and awards received, student ID number, home phone number, parent name, and parent email address as directory information.

This directory information may only be utilized for:

Student and parent contact information, such as class directories, but only to school staff, parents of current students, and school-recognized parent organizations;
School publications, including newsletters, honor roll or other rewards or recognition lists;
Graduation programs;
School-sponsored extracurricular programs, such as concert programs.

Except as otherwise necessary to fulfill one or more of the permissible purposes above, directory information will not be disclosed to parties outside of AMS seeking to use directory information for commercial or informational purposes.

In addition, federal laws require schools receiving certain federal funding to provide military recruiters, upon request, with the following student information – names, addresses, and telephone numbers.

Parents wishing to opt out of the release of their student’s directory information, as stated above, must do so in writing. Visit the school office to update your students’ records.