1. Sharing Information: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and Participation in Juvenile Justice Programs. Program Report.
- Author
-
Department of Justice, Washington, DC. Office of Justice Programs., Family Policy Compliance Office (ED), Washington, DC., Medaris, Michael L., Campbell, Ellen, and James, Bernard
- Abstract
Maintaining safe schools requires the forging of partnerships to share information between schools and youth-serving agencies, including the police department, court system, youth parole and probation offices, and child protective services. All public elementary and secondary schools are subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law that governs the disclosure of information from education records. This guide is for educators, law enforcement personnel, juvenile justice professionals, and community leaders who are interested in developing interagency information-sharing agreements to fully involve the schools in a holistic approach to intervention and delinquency prevention. Educators and other youth-serving professionals will find clear directions on how to share information while complying with the FERPA. The guide provides an overview of FERPA, discusses the act's restrictions on information sharing and exceptions to those restrictions, explains recordkeeping requirements under the act, and summarizes recent changes to the regulations for implementing FERPA. The guide also explores the role of multiagency agreements in facilitating information sharing and looks at one effective program that relies on such agreements. Sources of technical assistance at the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice are included. Appendices contain the FERPA regulations and sample documents. (LMI)
- Published
- 1997