October 2018
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy
of student education records. The law prohibits school districts from releasing education
records without prior parental consent except in limited circumstances.
Under FERPA, school districts can designate certain categories of information as "directory
information." Directory information can include a variety of information, such as student and
family names, contact information, and photographs. Directory information may be released
without prior parental consent. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about
directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to
request that the school not disclose directory information about them.
FERPA has no specific exemption that allows school districts to release student education
records to ICE agents who are enforcing immigration law without prior parental permission.
ICE does have authority to issue subpoenas. Under FERPA, school districts can provide
confidential student information in response to a properly issued subpoena. However, FERPA
requires schools to make a reasonable effort to notify parents about the subpoena before
producing information, so the parent can object or otherwise seek protection from the
subpoena.
Interviews on school premises
The ICE sensitive locations policy, adopted in 2011, provides that enforcement actions at
sensitive locations, such as schools, should generally be avoided, and require either prior
approval from an appropriate supervisory official or exigent circumstances necessitating
immediate action. Enforcement actions covered by this policy are apprehensions, arrests,
interviews, or searches, and for purposes of immigration enforcement only, surveillance.
The policy is still in effect.
In 2018, the Oregon Legislature passed SB 1540, which gives the Oregon Department of Human
Services or a law enforcement agency the authority to interview a child on school premises as
part of an investigation of a report of child abuse. The statute is limited to child abuse
investigations and does not give federal immigration enforcement the authority to interview a
child on school premises.
