FERPA in Research
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) at 34 CFR Part 99 is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.
FERPA regulates the disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information “PII” from education records in all public elementary and secondary schools, school districts, intermediate education agencies, state education agencies, and any public or private agency or institution that receives funding from the U.S. Education Department.
Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record.
See more information from the U.S. Department of Education.
Educator Researchers
MSU researchers, both faculty and students, wear many hats. In particular, MSU Education Graduate Students may also be teachers, principals, administrators, and superintendents. In those school roles, educators have natural access to Student Education Records like tests, grades, and homework, to fulfill their regular job duties. However, in the MSU research context, these same individuals must put on their “researcher hat” and view the students they see daily under a special research lens. This means that the Student Education Records that they regularly access must be treated differently for research purposes because this research activity is subject to FERPA.
In the research context, it is no longer possible to simply log into the gradebook and pull data for research – this action requires parent or Eligible Student consent. An MSU Educator Researcher has an academic task to conduct research to fulfill their graduate school requirements. Per the regulations, that research is considered a personal objective rather than a legitimate educational interest in the records they otherwise freely handle on a regular basis.
Education Records
The term "education records" means records that contain information directly related to a student and which are maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution.
Education Records may include but are not limited to:
- Student grades, GPA, or transcripts
- Student course schedules, class lists
- Student work products: graded tests, class homework, submitted journaling assignments
- Audio or video recordings of students in classrooms
- Student ID photos
- Virtual class discussion posts/responses or interactions with online learning systems
- Student financial information
- Student discipline files
- Student health records
By definition, Student Education Records are directly related to a student. If you will be able to ascertain the identity of a student from the education record at the time of access, FERPA applies.
FERPA Compliant Consent
FERPA and IRB requirements can be met if a parent of a minor student or an Eligible Student (a student who has reached 18 years of age or is attending an institution of postsecondary education) signs a consent form to participate in a research study and authorizes the release of the Student Education Records for research purposes. The FERPA Compliant Consent should be included within your IRB consent submitted in your protocol application. The FERPA Compliant Consent must be signed and dated (not passive or opt-out) and include the following elements:
- An explanation of which specific records will be disclosed
- The purpose of the data disclosure
- The people or organizations that will have access to the student data
The MSU IRB will review your FERPA Compliant Consent in conjunction with your other human subjects research application materials. However, the school that you are working with holds the final authority on student education record release.
Primary Source: Student Education Record ⇒ used secondarily for research purposes ⇒ FERPA Compliant Consent Required
**Typical secondary research in classrooms (AKA Existing Data): student work products including but not limited to graded tests, class homework, submitted journaling assignments that are first/normally assigned in class (and would be anyway despite the research project) that you wish to use secondarily for research purposes.
Primary Source: Research only student attitudes/assessments ⇒ used primarily for research purposes ⇒ FERPA Compliant Consent not needed but use a simple student assent
**Typical primary research in classrooms: new survey and interviews or assessments outside of what is normally assigned and that you have designed/created specifically for the research project.
*If FERPA compliant consent applies it cannot be waived by a Principal or School Administrator as this is a federal law*
FERPA Consent Templates and Assent Guidelines
FERPA Compliant Consent (K-12)
FERPA Compliant Consent (Eligible Student)
Student Assent Guidelines:
The assent form should be written in a way that is easy for children to understand and should address any concerns they may have about participating in your study. It should also provide reassurance that their well-being and privacy will be protected throughout the research process.
- Title and Introduction: Clearly state that the document is an assent form for particiaptation in your research study. Example: Subject (or Participant) Assent Form for Participation in Human Research at Montana State University. Introduce the researcher(s) and the purpose of the study in simple and understandable language appropriate for the age group.
- Study Procedures: Provide a brief overview of what will happen during the study, including any tasks, interviews, surveys, or observations involved.
- Confidentiality and Privacy: Describe how the student's information will be kept and any measures taken to protect their privacy. Assure them that their responses will be anonymized or kept confidential as much as possible (see glossary for distinction). If using multimedia: Explain what types of recordings will be taken, how they will be handled/used, and how privacy will be protected.
- Funding Information: State when applicable.
- Voluntary Participation: Clearly state that participation is voluntary, and you can choose to not answer any questions you do not want to answer and/or you can stop at any time. Also state, Participation or non-participation will not affect a student's grades or class standing in any way.
- Contact Information: Contact information for yourself (lead PI) should subjects have any questions as well as contact information for the MSU Institutional Review Board (IRB). Make sure to spell out IRB as many do not know what the acronym stands for. You can use the general IRB email, irb@montana.edu, as well as phone number to the IRB Program Manager, (406) 994-4706.
- Your IRB Reference Number: This can be found in TOPAZ under protocol information or next to the blue "i" at the top of the TOPAZ form, found on all pages.
Exceptions and Alternate Options
A few paths provide options to conduct educational research without the need for FERPA Compliant Consent.
Exempt Category 1 involves: Research conducted in established or commonly accepted educational settings that specifically involves normal education practices that are not likely to adversely impact students' opportunity to learn required educational content or the assessment of educators who provide instruction. Researchers can conduct studies that fall under Exempt Category 1 without the use of Student Education Records. This could include class observation or evaluation of student attitudes towads learning.
A principal, school administrator, or registrar could pull the identifiable Student Education Records and strip all identifying information. This must be complted by someone other than the researcher. The de-identified data set could then be given to the researcher for analysis.
- Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance.
- Each educational institution designates what information is considered directory information. Therefore, the researcher should contact each institution from which they propose to access student records and follow that institution's FERPA policy and procedures when accessing directory information. This must be documented in your MSU IRB research application.
FERPA regulations at 34 CFR 99.31(a)(6) contain an exception to its general consent rule under which an educational agency or institution may disclose PII from education records without consent to organizations conducting studies for, or on its behalf. Studies must be only for the purpose of:
- Developing, validating, or administering predictive tests;
- Administering student aid programs; or
- Improving instruction.
Additional Conditions:
- A written agreement with the institution is required, specifying the purpose of the study and the use and destruction of the information.
- The study is conducted in a manner that doe snot permit personal identification of students by individuals other than representatives of the organization that have legitimate interests in the information.
- Unless written consent from the student is obtained, FERPA prohibits PII from education records from being published in a way that would allow individual students to be identified.
- The information is destroyed when no longer needed for the purpose for which the study was conducted.
The interpretation of this regulation is meant to produce information for the improvement of services at an institution, not to produce generalizable knowledge for distribution beyond the institution.
This exception would be rarely utilized at MSU and only at the behest of MSU (e.g., at the request of Administration, Vice President for Research, Provost, or Office of Planning and Analysis).
Frequently Asked Questions
Correct. Any primary research efforts are new.
It is helpful to parse out the components you'd like to use for research purposes. For example:
- Typical primary research in classrooms: new survey and interviews or assessments outside of what is normally assigned and that you have designed/created specifically for the research project.
- Typical secondary research in classrooms (AKA Existing Data): student work products including but not limited to graded tests, class homework, submitted journaling assignments that are first/normally assigned in class (and would be anyway despite the research project) that you wish to use secondarily for research purposes.
- If you're planning on using student education records secondarily for research purposes
- If your school requires an active method (like collection of signaure)
- If it is recorded by the investigator in such a manner that the identity of the student subjects cannot readily be ascertained directly through identifiers linked to the subjects, the investigator does not contact the subjects, and the investigator will not re-identify subjects. This means that you will view but not record any identifiers for the research.
- Handled under broad consent regulations per 45 CFR 690.104(d)(7) or (8). This means you will record identifers and track individual trends for this research. Broad consent is needed to store and use PII which must be requested in the parental consent.
Additional Resources
Download the Research in Educational Settings School Permission Template or fill out via DocuSign
US Department of Health and Human Services Guidance on Research with Children