What The Law Says About Looking Up Cell Phone Numbers From Your Child's Phone
Greg Wilson
December 27, 2007
There is some confusion surrounding the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (more commonly called FERPA). Most parents and children are not aware of how this applies to them or what rights they have because of it. That’s why we will offer some simple explanations so you may best see what FERPA means and how it can relate to your situation with your child’s school.
To begin, FERPA helps to protect the privacy of student records. They limit the individuals who can view them and keep your child’s personal information secure. This act helps to define the parental rights (allowing you to look over the records and possibly obtain a copy of them, contest articles you may think incorrect and also maintain control over who else may see them) and also insures that the school will not abuse their given authority. You have the power of your child’s records for almost all situations.
FERPA does allow, however, for schools to offer the records without your permission during certain scenarios. These include transferals to new schools, answering college admissions, answering judicial issues and financial aid. Schools are able to hand over copies of student files for these purposes and are not required to inform you of it.
There are times, though, that schools may try to disclose the information to other sources. Your child’s name, age and phone number could be given to certain directories or networks. This, naturally, could be a cause for alarm for you; which is why the school is required to tell you of their intentions and allow you enough time to respond. You can deny the disclosure and keep the records out of public view. You must tell the school this, however. If you don’t, and the time passes, they will pass on the files.
In most cases, the school will contact you by letter or phone. Be none-the-less, be careful to watch for this.
FERPA protects your rights as parents and keeps your child’s information safe. You must understand its workings, though, to use it to your advantage. Otherwise, you may find records you thought secure suddenly available to the public.
You can often find more information about who your child is calling using a free cell phone search. There any dozens of websites offering this information, and a simple Google Search gives you a lot of leads.
To begin, FERPA helps to protect the privacy of student records. They limit the individuals who can view them and keep your child’s personal information secure. This act helps to define the parental rights (allowing you to look over the records and possibly obtain a copy of them, contest articles you may think incorrect and also maintain control over who else may see them) and also insures that the school will not abuse their given authority. You have the power of your child’s records for almost all situations.
FERPA does allow, however, for schools to offer the records without your permission during certain scenarios. These include transferals to new schools, answering college admissions, answering judicial issues and financial aid. Schools are able to hand over copies of student files for these purposes and are not required to inform you of it.
There are times, though, that schools may try to disclose the information to other sources. Your child’s name, age and phone number could be given to certain directories or networks. This, naturally, could be a cause for alarm for you; which is why the school is required to tell you of their intentions and allow you enough time to respond. You can deny the disclosure and keep the records out of public view. You must tell the school this, however. If you don’t, and the time passes, they will pass on the files.
In most cases, the school will contact you by letter or phone. Be none-the-less, be careful to watch for this.
FERPA protects your rights as parents and keeps your child’s information safe. You must understand its workings, though, to use it to your advantage. Otherwise, you may find records you thought secure suddenly available to the public.
You can often find more information about who your child is calling using a free cell phone search. There any dozens of websites offering this information, and a simple Google Search gives you a lot of leads.
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