Necessity of Information Collected.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is codified at 20 U.S.C. § 1232g. The purpose of the Act is to protect the privacy of students’ education records. FERPA affords certain rights to parents and to eligible students (a student who has reached 18 years of age or is attending a postsecondary institution at any age) with respect to students’ education records. FERPA applies to educational agencies and institutions that receive funds from any program administered by the Department of Education. The regulations are found at 34 CFR Part 99.
20 U.S.C. § 1232g(e) requires each educational agency or institution to annually inform parents and students of their rights under FERPA (34 CFR § 99.7).
20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1)(F) permits the nonconsensual disclosure of personally identifiable information from students’ education records to organizations conducting studies “for, or on behalf of” an educational agency or institution. A change to the FERPA regulations requires an educational agency or institution that discloses information under this exception to consent to enter into a written agreement with the organization that is conducting the study (34 CFR § 99.31(a)(6)(ii)(C)(1)-(4)).
20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(4)(A) requires each educational agency or institution to keep a record of parties who have asked for and/or received access to the student’s records (34 CFR § 99.32).
The FERPA regulations were amended to require that State and local educational authorities and Federal officials and agencies listed in § 99.31(a)(3) maintain a record of further disclosures these parties may make on behalf of an educational agency or institution if the educational agency or institution does not record the further disclosures (34 CFR § 99.32(a)(1)).
The FERPA regulations were amended to require that educational agencies and institutions record the articulable and significant threat to the health or safety of a student or other individuals that formed the basis for a disclosure under 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(10). This is in addition to the longstanding requirement that educational agencies and institutions keep a record of parties who have asked for and/or received access to the students’ education records (34 CFR § 99.32(a)(5)).
The FERPA regulations were amended to require educational agencies and institutions to maintain a listing in each student’s record of the State and local educational authorities and Federal officials and agencies that may make further disclosures of the student’s education records without consent (34 CFR § 99.32(b)(2)).
The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) was published on March 24, 2008. The final rule relates to this collection and has identified changes in the information collection requirements as a result of comments on the regulations.
Purpose of Use of Information Collected.
Educational agencies and institutions, such as school districts and postsecondary institutions are required to annually notify parents and students of their rights under FERPA. A school is not required to notify parents and students individually, but rather is required to provide the notice by any means that are reasonably likely to inform them of their rights under FERPA. These means could include publication in the school activities calendar, newsletter, school website, student handbook, or a combination of these methods.
In addition, educational agencies and institutions must keep a record of each request for access to and each disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records of each student. FERPA includes several exceptions to the recordation requirement. The recordation requirement does not apply to requests from or disclosures to: (1) the parent or eligible student; (2) a school official with legitimate educational interest; (3) a party with written consent from the parent or eligible student; (4) a party seeking directory information; or (5) a party seeking or receiving the records as directed by a Federal grand jury or other law enforcement subpoena and the issuing court or agency has ordered that the existence or contents of the subpoena or the information furnished in response not be disclosed.
FERPA requires that educational agencies and institutions – typically schools, school districts, and postsecondary institutions – also record the names of additional parties, if any, to which the receiving party may make further disclosures of the information on behalf of the educational agency or institution. The recent changes to the FERPA regulations require that State and local educational authorities and Federal officials and agencies that receive personally identifiable information from students’ education records – such as a State department of education – record any further disclosures of the information they make if the disclosing school did not record the further disclosures, or if the information was received from another education authority or Federal official or agency listed in § 99.31(a)(3) of the FERPA regulations.
Per recent changes to the recordation requirements in the regulations, educational agencies and institutions must also maintain a listing in students’ records of the State and local educational authorities and Federal officials and agencies that may make further disclosures of the students’ education records on behalf of the agency or institution so that parents and eligible students will be made aware of these further disclosures. This requirement would only apply in those cases where educational agencies and institutions have disclosed personally identifiable information from education records to any of these authorities listed in § 99.31(a)(3) of the FERPA regulations. Under this exception to FERPA’s general rule of consent, educational agencies and institutions are permitted to disclose education records to these particular officials and authorities for audit, evaluation, or compliance or enforcement activities, under the conditions of § 99.35 of the regulations. The information collection requirements are necessary to carry out the purpose of the Act.
Further, FERPA requires an educational agency or institution to enter into a written agreement with an organization conducting studies, for or on its behalf, for purposes of testing, student aid, and improvement of instruction. The written agreement requirement only applies if the educational agency or institution opts to disclose personally identifiable information from student’s education records under this exception to the general consent requirement of FERPA. The agreement must: (1) specify the purpose, scope, and duration of the studies or studies; (2) require the organization to use personally identifiable information from education records only to meet the purpose or purposes of the study; (3) require the organization to conduct the study in a manner that does permit personal identification of parents and students by anyone other than representatives of the organization with legitimate interests; and (4) requires the organization to destroy or return to the educational agency or institution all personally identifiable information when the information is no longer needed for purposes of the study. The information collection requirements are necessary to carry out the purposes of the Act.
Consideration of Improved Information Technology.
The advancement of and more common use of computer systems have dramatically reduced the burden of graphically producing the notification of rights required under the FERPA since it was enacted in 1974. Electronic systems also enable schools to more easily create and maintain disclosure information for the mandatory recordation requirements.
The Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO), which administers FERPA, makes available to school officials a model notification that can be adapted by schools. The models are posted on the Department’s Web site -- http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/lea-officials.html and http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/ps-officials.html. Thousands of school officials – elementary/secondary as well as postsecondary – routinely receive compliance training on FERPA in sessions around the country. The training includes information on where to locate and download the model notifications. School officials are also provided this information in response to requests for technical assistance via [email protected]. In addition, FPCO annually notifies school districts of their obligations under FERPA, as required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The annual notice includes a copy of the model FERPA notification and information on where to locate and download the model. This greatly reduces the burden on schools of having to write the required notification.
FPCO plans to provide guidance and compliance training to educational agencies and institutions on the new requirement to maintain a listing of the authorities that may make further disclosures of education records.
Other than the use of computers to reduce the burden of writing agreements, there is no specific technology that would reduce the burden of written agreements. However, FPCO will provide technical assistance and guidance to those educational agencies and institutions that request assistance. FPCO will also provide compliance training on this requirement in compliance training sessions.
Efforts to Identify Duplication.
The provisions do not duplicate any other Federal requirements. No other agency has this information.
Burden Minimization as Applied to Small Businesses.
These regulations are consistent with the Administration’s regulatory principles to minimize burden on small entities.
Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection.
Should these collections of information under FERPA be conducted less frequently, the requirements of the Act would not be carried out.
Special Circumstances Governing Data Collection.
These information collection requirements are consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).
Consultation Outside the Agency.
The Department informed the public through a 60-day and a 30-day notice that the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act was published on March 24, 2008. The NPRM (Vol. 73, No. 57, page 15574) did not provide a comment period for the information collection activity. However, the 60-day notice provided and the 30-day notice provides the appropriate comment period for the information collection activity.
Prior to this time, the public had the opportunity to comment on the proposed changes in the collection of information under FERPA during the publication of a notice of proposed rulemaking in the March 14, 1996, Federal Register. See 61 Fed. Reg. 10664 (March 14, 1996). One of the proposed changes was to remove the previous requirement that educational agencies and institutions have a student records “policy” pursuant to § 99.6 of the regulations and to transfer some of the policy requirements to the notification requirement of § 99.7 of the regulations. As explained in the final regulations – 61 Fed. Reg. 59292 (November 21, 1996) – the purposes in removing the requirement that schools maintain a policy were: (1) the change will help to ensure that parents and eligible students receive more effective notification of their rights under the law; and (2) the change will afford schools greater flexibility by removing requirements that are not statutory and not necessary to implement the law.
Seven commenters submitted letters in support of the proposal to remove the regulatory requirement that schools adopt student records policies. One commenter said that the change will not only lessen the burden on schools, but would facilitate communication between the schools and parents or eligible students. The same commenter also said that the cost associated with the change would not be significant because his school district updates its notices regardless of statutory requirements. Another commenter representing a large public university stated that the “flexibility offered by not requiring having such a [student records] policy is a laudable goal.” Six commenters opposed the change. One commenter stated that the current requirements are not burdensome. Two noted that the policy is helpful in educating school officials about FERPA, and that the change in requirements would be burdensome on schools because they would incur costs to publish a longer notification. After consideration of the last comment, the Department removed some of the information proposed to be included in the notification as not necessary to meet the statutory requirement. (See discussion at 61 Fed. Reg. 59293, first column.) At the time of these final regulations, FPCO made a hard copy model notification available to schools. Both model notifications (one for elementary/secondary schools and one for postsecondary institutions) were published in the Federal Register. (See 61 Fed. Reg. 59297 – 59298.) Since that time, we have included the models on our Web site.
The other proposed change in 1996 involving the collection of information under FERPA was a change to the recordation requirements of § 99.32. The change resulted in the addition of the fifth exception to the requirement. Specifically, schools are not required to record disclosure of information resulting from certain types of subpoenas and court orders issued for law enforcement purposes. This change reduced the recordkeeping burden for these types of disclosures. No comments were received on this change.
Regulations since 1996 have not involved any changes in the collection of information under FERPA. However, in 2008, we added additional information collection requirements in FERPA. While no specific consultation with school officials has occurred, they had the opportunity to comment on notices of proposed rulemaking, which in this last rulemaking included the new requirements. Educational agencies and institutions have not independently expressed concern over costs or burden because of these requirements. FPCO has sought ways to minimize burden of these requirements, such as making model notices easily available to school officials.
As a result of the March 28, 2008, NPRM, the Department did receive comments on some of the information collection activities. In the NPRM, we specifically noted that the Department was interested in relieving any administrative burdens associated with recording disclosures of education records and, therefore, invited public comments on whether a State educational agency (SEA), the Department, or other authority or official listed in § 99.31(a)(3) should be allowed to maintain the record of the redisclosures it makes on behalf of an educational agency or institution under § 99.32.
Several commenters, including officials representing State departments of education, stated that an SEA (or other authority or official listed in §99.31(a)(3)) should be responsible for maintaining the record of disclosure required under § 99.32 when it rediscloses information on behalf of educational agencies and institutions. The commenters stated that requiring each educational agency or institution, such as school districts, to record each redisclosure made by an SEA or other State educational authority on its behalf imposes an unacceptable recordkeeping burden on school districts and is impractical for State educational authorities to adhere to in making further disclosures on behalf of the agency or institution. In response to these comments, we revised § 99.32 to require the State and local educational authorities and Federal officials listed in § 99.31(a)(3) to maintain the record of further disclosures if the educational agency or institution does not do so and make it available to the educational agency or institution upon request. We agree that by requiring State and Federal authorities and officials to record their redisclosures in these circumstances school districts will have less total paperwork burden because schools will not have to comply with the recordkeeping requirement in these instances.
The Department also received comments from a number of parties expressing support and appreciation for the explicit requirement for a written agreement whenever an educational agency or institution discloses personally identifiable information from education records to organizations conducting certain studies under § 99.31(a)(6). A national association of school boards pointed out that, while this change created another paperwork burden for school districts, the group did not object to the written agreement requirement because putting in writing the requirements regarding the use and destruction of data may improve compliance with FERPA. This commenter also recommended that the use and destruction of data should be made clear in this new provision. A national association representing postsecondary officials commented that, among other things, we should restrict access to personally identifiable information within the organization conducting the study to those individuals with a legitimate interest in the information. We received other comments that indicated a need to further clarify the specific types of information that must be contained in the written agreement between an educational agency and institution and an organization conducting a study for the agency or institution, and we included these clarifications in the final regulations.
Payments or Gifts to Respondents.
The information collection’s respondents will not receive any payment or gift for submitting any information related to FERPA.
Assurance of Confidentiality.
FERPA requires that educational agencies and institutions protect the privacy of student’s education records, including the privacy of the record of request for the student’s education records. As the respondents of the information collection requirements, school officials do not need assurance of confidentiality because the requirements are intended to advance the privacy rights of parents and eligible students (a student who has reach 18 years of age or is attending a postsecondary institution at any age).
Questions of Sensitive Nature.
The Act does not address nor call for questions of a sensitive nature.
Annual Hour Burden for Respondents/Recordkeepers
FERPA’s Annual Notification of Rights Requirement (34 CFR § 99.7)
There are approximately 20,629 school districts and postsecondary institutions affected by the annual notification of rights requirement in FERPA (34 CFR § 99.7). We estimate that an average of .25 hours (15 minutes) per response is required for the annual notification of rights requirement. From administrative experience, we have determined that, at the elementary/secondary level, school districts (as opposed to individual schools) are the entities that typically issue the annual notification of FERPA rights. At the postsecondary level, it is the individual institutions that issue the notice. Following is a breakdown of school districts and postsecondary institutions:
No. School Districts: 14,166
Burden Hours: x .25
Total Burden Hours = 3,542
No. Postsec. Inst.: 6,463
Total Burden Hours = 1,616
School District Burden Hours: 3,542
Grand Total Burden Hours: 5,158
Since most agencies and institutions met major requirements during the early years after FERPA’s passage in 1974 and after publication of the revised regulations in 1988, the year-to-year cost is minimal.
FERPA’s Written Agreement Requirement (34 CFR § 99.31(a)(6)(ii)(C)(1)-(4))
20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1)(F) permits the nonconsensual disclosure of personally identifiable information from students’ education records to organizations conducting studies “for, or on behalf of” an educational agency or institution for specified purposes. A change to the FERPA regulations requires that, if an educational agency or institution discloses personally identifiable information under this exception to consent, it must enter into a written agreement with the organization that is conducting the study (34 CFR § 99.31(a)(6)(ii)(C)(1)-(4)).
The regulations in §99.31(a)(6)(ii)(C) require an educational agency or institution to enter into a written agreement before disclosing personally identifiable information from education records, without consent, to organizations conducting studies for, or on behalf of, the educational agency or institution to: (a) develop, validate, or administer predictive tests; (b) administer student aid programs; or (c) improve instruction. The written agreement must specify the purpose or purposes, scope, and duration of the study or studies and the information to be disclosed, require the organization to conduct the study in a manner that does not permit personal identification of parents and students by anyone other than representatives of the organization with legitimate interests, require the destruction or return of the information to the educational agency or institution when the study is completed, and specify the time period for destruction or return of the information.
As discussed with OMB, the Department does not have any information on how many educational agencies and institutions actually disclose information to organizations under this exception. Therefore, we are unable to estimate the additional burden, if any, for the new requirements in §99.31(a)(6)(ii)(C). However, we believe that the additional burden of entering into written agreements to comply with this change is unlikely to be significant because most educational agencies and institutions already specify the terms under which personally identifiable information can be used when it is disclosed to organizations for these types of studies. Although this change will create an additional information collection requirement, we believe the benefits of the written agreement outweigh any additional burden because it will ensure better compliance with FERPA and provide clarity for both researchers and educational agencies and institutions about the restrictions and use of personally identifiable information disclosed under §99.31(a)(6) for studies.
FERPA’s Recordkeeping Requirement (34 CFR § 99.32)
We informally contacted eight school officials – three officials at elementary/secondary school districts and one official at an elementary school and four officials at postsecondary institutions. Most of the schools we contacted use a paper-based system for recordkeeping, while some of the postsecondary institutions use both paper-based and electronic. From our informal review, it is clear that the recordkeeping is done at the individual school (as opposed to the school district at the elementary/secondary level) and the individual postsecondary institution. We estimate that an average of .0833 hours (5 minutes) per disclosure is required for the recordkeeping requirement. The average number of disclosures of individual student records per year is based on responses from the eight school officials. (Based on the type and size of the school, the number of releases vary.)
It is not clear that schools recognize that FERPA requires that they record disclosures made of personally identifiable information from students’ education records to State authorities, such as when a school discloses personally identifiable information on all students in attendance to a State education department on the elementary/secondary level or to the State postsecondary educational authority on the college level. Without more information on the practices of schools in this regard, it is difficult to accurately estimate the specific burden hours for this recordkeeping requirement. However, we assume that many of these schools, especially at the postsecondary level and more urban school districts, utilize computerized methods to record disclosures, which would make it less burdensome to record disclosures for large numbers of students. Where there are large numbers of disclosures and no computerized method is used to indicate that a disclosure occurred, FPCO has advised schools that they may utilize a single notice about the mass disclosure. When a parent or student requests access to his or her record of disclosure, the school may provide the notice with the information concerning the disclosure to the parent or student at the time of the request, thereby minimizing the burden on the school. However, because these recordations are not exempt from FERPA’s recordkeeping requirement, we have included an estimate for the burden of recording disclosures of all students in attendance to State authorities. We estimate that schools must share this information with State officials twice a year and estimate that it would take schools 1 hour to either make the recording via their computer system or develop a notation and make it available to parents or students asking to inspect this record. As explained elsewhere, it is our administrative experience that few parents and students request to see this record.
For the general recordkeeping requirement of § 99.32(a) for recordation of individual disclosures, following is a breakdown of individual schools (public elementary, secondary, or combined) and postsecondary institutions:
No. of Schools: 97,382
Average No. of Disclosures: x 192
# of Responses 18,697,344
Hours/Response: x .0833
Burden Hours 1,557,489
No. of Postsec. Inst.: 6,463
Average No. of Disclosures: x 192
# of Responses 1,240,896
Hours/Response: x .0833
Burden Hours 103,367
Elementary/Secondary School Burden Hours: 1,557,489
Postsec. Inst. Burden Hours: + 103,367
Total Burden Hours for recordation
of individual disclosures: 1,660,856
For the recordkeeping requirement for disclosures of all students in attendance to State educational authorities, following is a breakdown of individual schools (public elementary, secondary, or combined) and postsecondary institutions:
No. of Schools: 97,382
Average No. of Disclosures: x 2
# of Responses 194,764
Hours/Response: x 1
Burden Hours 194,764
No. of Postsec. Inst.: 6,463
Average No. of Disclosures: x 2
# of Responses 12,926
Hours/Response: x 1
Burden Hours 12,926
Elementary/Secondary School Burden Hours: 194.764
Postsec. Inst. Burden Hours: + 12,926
Total Burden Hours for recordation
of disclosures of all students: 207,690
Total Burden Hours for recordation
of individual disclosures: 1,660,856
Total Burden Hours for recordation
of disclosures of all students: 207,690
Total Burden Hours for Recordation 1,868,546
The number of school districts and the number of postsecondary institutions subject to FERPA is based on the number of public school districts and the number of Title IV postsecondary institutions, as reported in the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES’) Digest of Education Statistics. See http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_005.asp. The number of affected schools reported to OMB in previous years was higher, but we believe this number that is based on NCES’ count is more accurate.
§ 99.32(a)(1) –
Final regulations amended § 99.32(a)(1) to require educational agencies and institutions to maintain a listing in each student’s records of the State and local educational authorities and Federal officials and agencies that may make further disclosures of the student’s education records on behalf of the agency or institution without consent. This only applies when the school discloses personally identifiable information to one of these parties. Because schools are already required to record their disclosures to a State and Federal authorities under § 99.32(a), we do not believe that this new requirement will impose any new costs.
§ 99.32(a)(4) –
Final regulations also added § 99.32(a)(4) to require that, upon the request of a parent or eligible student, an educational agency or institution must obtain a copy of the record of further redisclosures described under § 99.32(b)(2) and make it available for review to the parent or eligible student.
State educational authorities and Federal officials and agencies that maintain records of redisclosures will have to make that information available to the educational agency or institution whose records were redisclosed, upon request, so that the agency or institution can make that record available to a parent or eligible student who has asked to inspect and review the student’s record of disclosures. We estimate that two educational authorities or agencies in each State and the District of Columbia (one for K-12 and one for postsecondary) and the Department itself, for a total of 103 authorities, will maintain the required records of redisclosures. We assume that it will take .25 hours (15 minutes) per disclosure to locate and print a record of disclosures for this requirement. Based on our administrative experience over the years, we assume that few parents and students request this information and, therefore, use an estimate that one tenth of one percent of a total of 68.1 million students will make such a request each year, or 68,076 requests. This translates to an average of 3 disclosures per school. (Divided total number of schools by total number of requests.) The total number of disclosures by State and Federal educational authorities will be the same as that calculated for schools.
No. of Schools & Postsec. Inst.: 20,629
Average No. of Discloures: x 3
# of Responses 61,887
Hours/Response: x .25
Burden Hours 15,472
Average No. of Disclosures by
State & Fed. Ed. Authorities: 61,887
Hours/Response: x .25
Burden Hours 15,472
School Burden Hours: 15,472
State & Fed. Burden Hours: + 15,472
Total Burden Hours 30,944
§ 99.32(a)(5) –
Final regulations added a new section (§ 99.32(a)(5)) that requires that a school that discloses information under the health and safety emergency exception in §99.36 record the articulable and significant threat that formed the basis for the disclosure and the parties to whom the education records were disclosed. Because §99.32(a) already requires schools to record disclosures made under §99.36, including the legitimate interests the parties had in requesting or obtaining the information, we believe these changes will not create any significant additional administrative costs for schools and that the benefit of requiring recordation of this information outweighs the costs. This new requirement in § 99.32(a)(5) simply clarifies the type of information that must be recorded when a school discloses personally identifiable information in response to a health or safety emergency, either for one student or for all students in a school. We do not believe that the new requirement modifies the burden reported under § 99.32.
§ 99.32(b)(2) –
Final regulations added a requirement (§ 99.32(b)(2)) that State and local educational authorities and Federal officials listed in § 99.31(a)(3) maintain a record of further disclosures these parties may make of personally identifiable information from education records if the educational agency or institution does not do so. While the Department did not officially seek comments on any information collection activities in the March 28, 2008, NPRM, we did receive comments on some of these activities. In the NPRM, we specifically noted that the Department was interested in relieving any administrative burdens associated with recording disclosures of education records and, therefore, invited public comments on whether a State educational agency (SEA), the Department, or other authority or official listed in § 99.31(a)(3) should be allowed to maintain the record of the redisclosures it makes on behalf of an educational agency or institution under § 99.32.
Several commenters, including officials representing State departments of education, stated that an SEA (or other authority or official listed in §99.31(a)(3)) should be responsible for maintaining the record of disclosure required under § 99.32 when it rediscloses information on behalf of educational agencies and institutions. The commenters stated that requiring each educational agency or institution, such as school districts, to record each redisclosure made by an SEA or other State educational authority on its behalf imposes an unacceptable recordkeeping burden on school districts and is impractical for State educational authorities to adhere to in making further disclosures on behalf of the agency or institution.
In response to these comments, we revised § 99.32 to require the State and local educational authorities and Federal officials listed in § 99.31(a)(3) to maintain the record of further disclosures if the educational agency or institution does not do so and make it available to the educational agency or institution upon request. We agree that by requiring State and Federal authorities and officials to record their redisclosures in these circumstances school districts will have less total paperwork burden because schools will not have to comply with the recordkeeping requirement in these instances.
State educational authorities and Federal officials listed in §99.31(a)(3) will incur new information collection burdens if they maintain the record of redisclosure for the educational agency or institution on whose behalf they redisclose education records under the regulations. We estimate that two educational authorities or agencies in each State and the District of Columbia (one for K-12 and one for postsecondary) and the Department itself, for a total of 103 authorities, will maintain the required records of redisclosures. (We anticipate that educational agencies and institutions will record under §99.32(b)(1) any further disclosures made by the other Federal officials listed in §99.31(a)(3), the U.S. Comptroller General and the U.S. Attorney General, as is currently required for redisclosures made by other parties on behalf of the educational agency or institution. See 34 CFR § 99.32(b)(1).) We estimate further that these authorities will need to record two redisclosures per year from their records. We estimate that an average of .0833 hours (5 minutes) per disclosure is required for this new recordkeeping requirement. We also assume for purposes of this analysis that State educational authorities and the Department already have software that will allow them to record these disclosures electronically.
No. of St. & Fed. Edu. Authorities: 103
Average No. of Disclosures: x 2
# of Responses 206
Hours/Response: x .0833
Burden Hours 17
General Recordkeeping Requirement § 99.32(a) 1,660,856
New Recordkeeping Requirement § 99.32(a)(4) 30,944
New Recordkeeping Requirement § 99.32(b)(2) 17
Grand Total Recordkeeping Burden 1,691,817
GRAND TOTAL
Total Number of Respondents: 103,947
Total Number of Responses: 20,290,537
Total Number of Burden Hours: 1,904,665
Annual Cost Burden to Respondents
The total for the capital and start-up cost components of both information collection requirements is zero. The information collection requirements under FERPA do not require the purchase of any capital equipment nor create any start-up costs. Computers and word processing software used to complete this information collection are part of the respondents customary and usual business or private practices, and therefore are not included.
The total for operation and maintenance for this information collection is zero. The information collection does not create costs associated with generating, maintaining, and disclosing or providing the information that is not already identified in question 12 of this supporting statement.
Estimated Annual Cost to the Federal Government.
No measurable percentage of staff time is devoted to assisting educational agencies and institutions in either of these information collection requirements. With regard to the annual notification requirement, as explained in the response to question 3, the Department posts model notifications (one for elementary/secondary and one for postsecondary) on its website. The model can be downloaded and easily be adapted by schools for use. With regard to the recordkeeping requirements, staff routinely provides technical assistance on other aspects of the law, but the recordkeeping requirements have become routine with schools and appear to not be an issue of concern.
Reasons for Changes to Burden Hours Estimated
All burden hours are counted as a program change since ED is requesting a new 1875 number for FERPA, due to the office moving to OPEPD. However, the burden hours are based on a more accurate number of educational agencies and institutions, as reported by the Department’s National Center for Education Statistics. In addition, as explained in the response to question 12, we contacted eight (8) entities subject to the information collection requirements to request informal feedback on how they comply with the recordkeeping requirements of FERPA. The additional burden hours for that requirement is based on an estimate of the time it takes entities to comply.
Collection of Information with Public Results.
The results of the collection of information will not be published.
Approval to Not Display Expiration Date.
ED is not seeking this approval.
Exception to the Certification Statement.
ED is not requesting any exceptions to the “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.”
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Support Statement |
| Author | Rhonda Kelly |
| Last Modified By | #Administrator |
| File Modified | 2008-12-02 |
| File Created | 2008-12-02 |