KingSpry congratulates education attorney Timothy Gilsbach, who has published a book on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
The e-book “FERPA: A Compliance Guide To Educational Privacy In The Digital Age” offers chapters on legal compliance, social media use by educators, and training tips.
“Cover your bases,” Gilsbach advises, noting that establishing and enforcing clear FERPA policies can go a long way to protecting the school’s reputation and legal defensibility.
Calling attention to a recent case out of Bucks County, Gilsbach explains removing a student’s name from a post when a teacher needs to vent about their day on social media is not enough to protect the student’s privacy and can open schools up to liability.
“FERPA is designed to protect information about students,” Gilsbach says. “When school entities fail to abide by it, even unintentionally, it can lead to corrective action by the federal government or, in more extreme cases, loss of federal funding. In addition, if information is improperly disclosed, it can lead to real trust issues on the part of parents making it more difficult for schools to work with the parents. This issue has become even more important in the digital age when more and more of this information is being kept electronically and can be hacked or disclosed electronically even by accident.”
E-book and print copies are available through DartnellCorp’s website: https://www.dartnellcorp.com/shop/ferpa-a-compliance-guide-to-educational-privacy-in-the-digital-age