The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) requires that the Wakefield-Marenisco School District, with certain exceptions, obtain your written consent prior to the disclosure of personally identifiable information from your child’s education records. However, the Wakefield-Marenisco School District may disclose appropriately designated “directory information” without written consent, unless you have advised the District in writing to the contrary. The primary purpose of directory information is to allow the Wakefield-Marenisco School District to include this type of information from your child’s educational records in certain school publications. Examples include:
- a playbill or program, showing your student’s role in a drama production or concert
- the annual yearbook
- honor roll or other recognition lists
- graduation programs
- and sports activity sheets, such as for football, showing weight and height of team members
Directory information can also be disclosed to outside organizations without a parent’s prior written consent. Outside organizations include, but are not limited to, companies that manufacture class rings or publish yearbooks.
In addition, two federal laws require school districts receiving assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to provide military recruiters, upon request, with three directory information categories—names, addresses and telephone listings—unless parents have advised the school district in writing that they do not want their student’s information disclosed without their prior written consent. If you do not want the Wakefield-Marenisco School District to disclose directory information from your child’s education records without prior written consent, you must notify the Superintendent in writing by October 30, 2015.
The Wakefield-Marenisco School District has designated the following information as directory information:
- a student’s name
- address
- telephone listing
- picture
- major field of study
- date and place of birth
- participation in officially recognized activities and sports
- weight and height of members of athletic teams
- dates of attendance
- degrees and awards received
- most previous school attended