School Newsletter FERPA Privacy Rules: What You Can and Cannot Include

FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) was enacted in 1974 to give parents control over their children's education records. Most teachers know FERPA exists. Fewer know exactly where the lines are when writing a school newsletter, which is a publication that goes outside the school and can identify students in ways that FERPA regulates.

This guide covers what FERPA actually protects, what that means for newsletter content specifically, and where the practical boundaries are for teachers and principals writing weekly communications.

What FERPA protects and who it applies to

FERPA applies to schools that receive federal funding. This includes virtually all public schools and many private schools. It gives parents the right to access their child's education records and the right to consent before those records are disclosed to outside parties.

An education record is any record that directly relates to a student and is maintained by the school. The definition is broad by design. It covers grades, test scores, attendance, disciplinary records, and health information. It also covers photos, videos, and other media that identify a specific student if those items are maintained as part of the student's record.

FERPA does not cover records that teachers maintain in their personal files and do not share with others. A teacher's personal notes about a student, kept in a notebook that is not shared with the school administration, are not education records. Once those notes are shared with another staff member or placed in the student's file, they become education records.

What you cannot include in a newsletter without consent

The clearest prohibitions for newsletter content: specific grades or test scores, disciplinary matters, health or medical information maintained by the school, special education status or IEP information, and any information that reveals a student's academic performance beyond general class-level descriptions.

"Our class scored well on the fractions quiz this week" does not identify any individual student and is not an education record. "Maria scored a 95 on the fractions quiz" is information about an identified student's academic performance and cannot appear in a newsletter without consent.

The same logic applies to behavioral information. Describing a class activity ("students worked on conflict resolution skills this week") does not identify any student. Describing an individual student's behavior, even positively, in a way that reveals information about a disciplinary or social-emotional intervention is a different matter.

The directory information exception explained

FERPA allows schools to designate certain types of student information as "directory information," which can be disclosed without individual consent. Typical directory information categories include: student name, grade level, photograph, enrollment status (currently enrolled), and participation in officially recognized activities.

However, there are two conditions that limit this exception. First, the school must annually notify families of which categories are designated as directory information. Second, families have the right to opt their child out of directory information disclosure. A student whose family has opted out cannot be identified by name or photograph in any school newsletter, even for positive recognition.

Schools that want to mention student names or use student photos in newsletters need to: have a directory information policy that covers these uses, provide annual notification to families, and maintain an accurate list of families who have opted out.

Photo policies: where most newsletters run into FERPA

Photos are where most teachers encounter FERPA in practice. A classroom photo that identifies students is covered by the directory information rules. If directory information status allows photos to be published, and the family has not opted out, the photo can appear in a newsletter. If any student in the photo has opted out of directory information disclosure, they should not appear in a published photo.

This creates a practical challenge: if you have one student in a class of 28 who has opted out of directory information, you cannot use any group photo that includes that student. You need to either crop the photo, choose a different photo, or ensure that student is not identifiable in the image.

The solution used by many schools is a separate photo consent form that is more specific than the directory information policy. A consent form that explicitly addresses newsletter photo use, with a clear opt-out, gives you a documented record for each student and makes the decision about any given photo straightforward.

Student work in newsletters

Student work is a gray area that depends on whether the work identifies the student and what it reveals. A photo of a student's completed art project, displayed on the classroom wall with no name visible, is generally not an education record. The same project with the student's name on it, shown in a newsletter, is covered by the directory information rules.

Student writing samples, if shared with names, are identifying and may touch on personal experiences or performance levels that parents have a right to control. If you want to share student writing in a newsletter, the safest approach is to obtain written consent from the student's parent, remove identifying information, or share writing samples at the class level ("our students wrote about their summer experiences") without reproducing any individual student's work.

Practical newsletter FERPA checklist

Before sending any newsletter, a quick FERPA review takes less than two minutes and covers most of the risk:

Does any content name a specific student in connection with academic performance, behavior, health, or special education status? If yes, do you have written consent from that student's parent?

Does any photo identify a specific student? If yes, has that student's family opted out of directory information disclosure? Is photo use covered by your school's directory information policy or a separate photo consent form?

Does any content reveal information that is part of a student's education record without meeting one of the FERPA exceptions?

A "no" to each of these questions means the newsletter is clear from a FERPA standpoint. A "yes" to any of them requires you to either remove the content, get consent, or verify that a specific FERPA exception applies.

When to involve your district's legal or compliance office

For routine weekly newsletters, the checklist above is sufficient. For newsletters that cover anything sensitive (a student health situation, a disciplinary matter at the school level, an incident that involved identified students), involve your principal and your district's compliance office before sending.

The cost of a FERPA violation is not always immediate. Parents who feel their child's privacy was violated can file a complaint with the Department of Education's Family Policy Compliance Office. Schools found in violation face remediation requirements and, in serious cases, loss of federal funding. The practical cost is usually reputational: a parent who feels the school violated their trust is unlikely to trust future communications from that school.