Grande Innovation Academy (“GIA”)

Policy Regarding Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Records Pursuant to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

FERPA affords parents and students who are 18 years of age or older (“eligible students”) certain rights with respect to the student’s education records and creates certain obligations on the part of an educational institution.

This Policy sets out the procedure to follow in situations in which GIA releases personally identifiable educational records to a third party or agent of the school.

Generally, under FERPA, a school must obtain written consent from a parent before the school discloses personally identifiable information (PII) from the student’s education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.

GIA may disclose PII without prior written consent from parents in the following situations:

1. To school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the school 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 a volunteer or contractor outside of the school who performs an institutional service of 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 education 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 education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibility.
2. To officials of another school, so long as the student is enrolled or preparing to enroll in that school and the disclosure is for the purpose of the student’s enrollment or transfer.
3. To authorized representatives of the Comptroller of the United States, the Secretary of Education of the United States, or state and local educational authorities.
4. If the disclosure is in connection to financial aid for which the student has applied or is receiving, so long as the disclosure is necessary to determine eligibility for the aid, the amount of the aid, the terms and conditions of the aid, or to enforce the terms and conditions of the aid.
5. To state and local officials or authorities to whom student information is permitted or required to be disclosed by statute.
6. To organizations developing, validating, or administering predictive tests, administering student aid programs, or improving instruction on behalf of or for the school so long as the disclosure is pursuant to a written agreement that meets the requirements of 34 C.F.R. § 99.31(6)(iii).
7. To accrediting organizations for the purpose of carrying out accreditation.
8. To the parents of a dependent student as defined in Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
9. To comply with a judicial order or lawful subpoena, so long as the school first makes an effort to notify the parent of the student in advance, so that the parent may move to quash the subpoena or order if desired, or where the parent or school has initiated legal action against the other and the records are relevant to the issue in the action.
10. Where the disclosure is in connection with a health or safety emergency.
11. Where the disclosure is of information that has been designated by the school as “directory information” and the conditions of the directory information notice have been met.
12. To the parent or eligible student.
13. Other such disclosures that are permissible under 34 C.F.R. § 99.31 and determined appropriate by the Director of the school.

It is GIA’s policy that any disclosures of PII made without parent consent, even where those disclosures are permitted as described in this policy, must be approved by the Director of the School or his/her designee, except in the case of a health or safety emergency. Failure to obtain approval prior to disclosure under this policy will result in disciplinary action, which can include termination.

Recordkeeping. GIA will maintain a record of all disclosures of PII made pursuant to this policy. That record will be maintained as long as the PII records are maintained for the student.

The record will include:

• The name of the individual or entity that requested or received records.
• The provision under which the disclosure was made (court order, litigation involving the
  student, etc.).
• The names of State and local educational authorities and Federal officials and agencies
  that may make further disclosures of the PII without consent.

Where the disclosure was pursuant to the health or safety exception, the record will include the
following information:

• The articulable and significant threat to the health or safety of a student or other individuals that formed the basis for the disclosure; and
• The parties to whom the information was disclosed.

The parent of the student has the right to review the record of disclosures. The record of disclosures will be maintained in the student’s cumulative file.