Who may obtain personally identifiable information?

 Under FERPA, a school may not generally disclose personally identifiable information from an eligible student's education records to a third party unless the eligible student (parent/guardian of a student under 18) has provided written consent.  however, there are a number of exceptions to FERPA's prohibition against nonconsensual disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records.  Under these exceptions, school are permitted to disclose personally identifiable information from education records without consent.

  • All parents and legal guardians. In the case of divorce, custodial and noncustodial parents have access to the child's record, unless a legally binding document declares differently;
  • Children over the age of 18, emancipated minors, or those attending post-secondary institutions;
  • School officials with legitimate education interest.  A school official is a person employed by WCSD as an administrator, supervisor, instructor, or support staff member (including health or medical staff and law enforcement unit personnel) or a person serving on the school board.  A school official also may include but is not limited to; a volunteer, intern, resident, student worker, or contractor outside of the school who performs an institutional service or function for which the school would otherwise use its own employees and who is under the direct control of the school with respect to the use and maintenance of PII from educational records, such as an attorney, auditor, medical consultant, or therapist; a parent or student volunteering to serve on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee; or a parent, student or other volunteer assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks.  A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an educational record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibility. A school official may also be a researcher working with the District or Nevada Department of Education with a legitimate educational interest or agencies that are contracted to provide functions on behalf of the school districts such as picture day (see List of Contract Service Providers Acting as School Officials);
  • School officials in a district to which the child intends to transfer;
  • Individuals connected with a health or safety emergency;
  • Accrediting organizations to carry out their accrediting functions;
  • In connection with financial aid for which the student has applied or received;
  • To state and local authorities pursuant to a State statute concerning the juvenile justice system and the system's ability to effectively serve the student whose records are being disclosed;
  • To organizations conducting studies for or on behalf of the school making the disclosure for the purposes of administering predictive tests, administering student aid programs or improving instructions;
  • To comply with a judicial order or a lawfully issued subpoena;
  • Agencies who are contracted with the school district to provide services such as recruitment (see List of Contract Service Providers Not Acting as School Officials);
  • A social worker or parole worker covered under the Uninterrupted Scholars Act;
  • A college or university to which a student has applied and intends to enroll;
  • In addition, two federal laws require local educational agencies (LEAs) receiving assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to provide military recruiters, upon request, with three directory information categories – names, addresses and telephone listings – unless parents (or students) have advised the LEA in writing by October 1st that they do not want their student's information disclosed without prior written consent.