This appendix provides an overview of four important federal laws that affect displaced students. (The information was obtained from the cited websites.)
FERPA (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. It affords parents the right to access and amend their children's education records, and gives them some control over the disclosure of the information in these records. Students and their parents entrust schools with their personal information with the expectation that this information will be used by the schools to serve the needs of the students effectively and efficiently. School districts maintain and use personal information for a variety of educational purposes while students are in school. To protect the privacy of students and their families, school staff are legally and ethically responsible for safeguarding the information collected about and from students.
In an emergency, FERPA permits school officials to disclose without consent education records, including personally identifiable information from those records, to protect the health or safety of students or other individuals. At such times, records and information may be released to appropriate parties such as law enforcement officials, public health officials, and trained medical personnel. See 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(10) and § 99.36. This exception is limited to the period of the emergency and generally does not allow for a blanket release of personally identifiable information from a student's education records.
Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):
Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information, and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them. Schools must notify parents and eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA.
The McKinney—Vento Homeless Assistance Act protects the educational rights of students experiencing homelessness. It provides legal protections so that children and youth in homeless situations can enroll in, attend, and succeed in school and preschool programs. It also establishes procedures to enroll children quickly, assess their needs, and provide services. Finally, the McKinney—Vento Act requires that every school district designate a local homeless education liaison; the local liaison is the district's point person for addressing needs that derive from loss of housing and is, therefore, a key contact for relief agencies. Students who are displaced by a crisis are generally covered by the McKinney—Vento Act.
The following is the policy of the Congress:
The term "homeless children and youths"
In 1996, Congress enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to ensure continued health insurance coverage to individuals who change jobs, and to establish standards regarding the electronic sharing of health information. For purposes of HIPAA, "covered entities" include health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers that transmit health information in electronic form in connection with covered transactions (45 CFR 160.103).
Technically, schools and school systems that provide health care services to students may qualify as "covered entities" under HIPAA. However, the final regulations for the HIPAA Privacy Rule exclude information considered "education records" under FERPA from HIPAA privacy requirements. This includes student health records and immunization records maintained by an education agency or institution, or its representative; as "education records" subject to FERPA, these files are not subject to HIPAA privacy requirements. In addition, school nurse or other health records maintained on students receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are considered "education records" and also subject to that Act's confidentiality provisions. Consequently, these records are subject to FERPA and not the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Nevertheless, certain activities, when performed by a school, could be subject to other provisions of HIPAA that concern electronic transactions. According to the preamble to the December 2000 final rules, "the educational institution or agency that employs a school nurse is subject to our (HIPAA) regulation if the school nurse or the school engages in a HIPAA transaction." HIPAA transactions are defined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) as "the transmission of information between two parties to carry out financial or administrative activities related to health care," including submitting claims. However, consent must still be secured under FERPA before the records are disclosed.
The mission of the Impact Aid Program is to disburse Impact Aid payments to local educational agencies that are financially burdened by federal activities and to provide technical assistance and support services to staff and other interested parties. The Hurricane Recovery Act authorized three grant programs to assist school districts and schools in meeting the educational needs of students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and in helping schools that were closed as a result of the hurricanes to reopen as quickly and effectively as possible. Under this program, the Department awarded emergency Impact Aid funding to SEAs. SEAs provided assistance to LEAs for the cost of educating students enrolled in public and nonpublic schools who were displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita during the school year 2005–2006.