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FERPA Notice

Student Record Requests

Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes the rights of parents/legal guardians to access their student’s educational record in accordance with FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act 1974). In addition, students who are at least 18 years old may access their own records. In brief, these rights include:

Parents/legal guardians, or students who are emancipated or at least 18 years old:

  • have the right to inspect and review the student’s education records
  • have the right to request that a school correct records that they believe to be inaccurate
  • have a right to a formal hearing if a school decides not to change the record
  • have a right to place a statement with the record about his/her view of the contested information after the hearing, if the school decides not to change the record.

Students shall enroll with their full legal name to be displayed on official documents. The transcript is the only official record of high school coursework completion and graduation. Students may request that their names on transcripts be changed to match their legal name by providing a court order showing the name change.

Parents/legal guardians, or students who are emancipated or who are at least 18 years old must give written permission for a school to release a student’s educational record to third parties not exempted by FERPA. FERPA also allows schools to disclose a student’s information without consent, to the following parties or under the following circumstances. In addition, two federal laws require local educational agencies receiving assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA) to provide student directory information to the military unless parents/legal guardians have advised the LEA that they do not want their student’s information disclosed without their prior written consent. Parties who may receive student information without parental/legal guardian consent include:

  • School officials with a legitimate educational interest (For purposes of this exception to the consent requirement, "school official" includes a teacher, school principal, board member, counselor, nurses, admissions officer, attorney, accountant, human resources professional, information systems specialist, and support or clerical personnel. "Legitimate educational interest" means that the school official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibility.)
  • Other educational institutions where the student is enrolled or seeks to enroll
  • Department of Education, state or local education authorities
  • Appropriate parties connected to financial aid for the student
  • Certain state or local officials
  • Accrediting organizations
  • Organizations conducting studies for or on behalf of the school
  • Judicial order or subpoena
  • Appropriate officials in cases of health or safety emergencies

School sites shall direct all questions about fulfilling these requests for student information to the Custodian of Records. APS will redact students’ personally identifiable information from responses to requests for records from third parties.

Student Directory Information

If a parent/legal guardian, or student who is emancipated or who is at least 18 years old does not want to disclose any or all of the types of information designated below as directory information from a student’s education records without their prior written consent, the parent/legal guardian, or student who is emancipated or who is at least 18 years old must notify the school district in writing. Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes the following types of information as student directory information:

  1. Name
  2. Address
  3. Telephone number
  4. Name of school
  5. Current grade
  6. Graduation year
  7. Eligibility and participation in officially recognized activities
  8. Height and weight of athletic team members
  9. Honors and awards received
  10. Yearbooks
  11. Identification in visual media, including photographs, videotapes, and visual images, depicting school programs or activities
  12. A student ID number, user ID, or other unique personal identifier used by the student for purposes of accessing or communicating in electronic systems, but only if the identifier cannot be used to gain access to educational records except when used in conjunction with one or more factors that authenticate the user’s identity, such as a personal identification number (PIN), password, or other factors known or possessed by the authorized user.

A primary purpose of directory information is to allow APS to include the type of information from student education records in certain school and district publications. Examples include:

  • A playbill, showing a student’s role in a drama production
  • The annual yearbook
  • Honor roll or other recognition lists
  • School and district websites and newsletters
  • Graduation programs and
  • Sports activity sheets, such as for wrestling, showing team members’ height and weight

Directory information is available to anyone who asks for it; its use is not limited by APS, however, APS has an expectation that all information be used ethically. Where a parent/legal guardian opts out, information will not be released.

Through the annual registration process, the district shall notify students and parents/legal guardians of the option to withhold directory information. Parents/legal guardians or students who are at least 18 years old may refuse to allow APS to designate any or all of those types of information about their student as directory information, provided the notice of such refusal is given to APS upon annual registration. Parents/legal guardians, or students who are emancipated or who are at least 18 years old may also designate in writing all or any of those items that they do not wish to be designated as directory information. If the parent/legal guardian, or student who is emancipated or who is at least 18 years old, desires to opt out after the annual registration process, they will need to submit an opt-out in writing to the executive director of the Student, Parent/Legal Guardian and Employee Service Center.

Parent/legal guardian opt out for student directory requests from military recruiters or recruiters from institutions of higher education

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act mandates that, upon request by a military recruiter or recruiter for an institution of higher education, school districts must provide access to all currently enrolled secondary school students’ directory information, specifically name, addresses and telephone listing, except in instances when the parents/legal guardians have “opted out” of release of directory information about their student without their consent. A secondary school student who is emancipated or who is at least 18 years old or the parent/legal guardian of the student may request that the student’s directory information not be released to any military or post-secondary recruiter by submitting an online opt out request. The district shall notify students and parents/legal guardians, and students of this option to withhold directory information. The district shall comply with these “opt-out” requests regarding the release of student directory information.

Opt out for third party requests

Directory information for students whose parents/legal guardians have blocked release of their directory information under FERPA will be excluded from any third-party data requests. APS will give notice to parents/legal guardians of the matters considered to be directory information and the time period for opting out at least annually through the registration process or other reasonable forms of parental/legal guardians notification.

When a third party submits a request for student directory information, the Custodian of Records may inform the requester that pursuant to NMSA 22-21-2(A), it is against the law to sell or use student, faculty or staff lists with personal identifying information obtained from a public school or a local school district for the purpose of marketing goods or services directly to students, faculty or staff or their families by means of telephone or mail.

 

Updated as of July 2024

This page was last updated on: July 26, 2022.