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S.P.A.R.C. | 
| Separated Parenting Access & Resource Center
"Keeping Families Connected"
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Access To School and Medical Records
State Statutes & General Information
 related pages
Statistics and life experiences clearly show that
children do better in school when their fathers participate and
take an interest in their schooling. Many non-custodial parents (NCP's)
find, however, that the Custodial Parents (CP's) either fail to
keep them informed or take steps to actually block their access
to the schools. The same goes for medical records. Doctors and
school administrators, not wanting to be in the middle of a
dispute, often go along with this. In many states this is illegal.
These articles provide information on the Federal Statutes in
regards to school and medical records and sample letters for
requesting the records. Individual states often have rules that
are much more specific and more liberal in granting the non-custodial
parent access to records. Realize that the statutes are only 1/2 of the law.
The rest is contained in case law, which is why we always recommend that you get
an attorney if possible.
Please email us at
if you find anything missing or outdated, or if there are any broken links.
Disclaimer: You are
well-advised to consult with an attorney in your area and/or check
your state's current statutes to verify this information. These materials
are provided for informational purposes only and are not to be construed
as legal advice. In some cases we have included the statutes specifically
prohibiting access just so you will know what you are up against. That is
not what we were looking for, so it's exclusion should not be construed to
mean there is no such statute.
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Special Note on letters and e-mails between the teacher or school and other parties:
Recently an incident occurred where we were asked by a concerned parent about obtaining copies of e-mails between the other parent and the teacher. In this case, the teacher had mentioned a number of e-mails but refused to discuss their content. They wanted to know if they could access these e-mails under FERPA. Our reply was in two parts, the first was on correspondence in general, whether it be letters, notes, or other documents. The second was additional thoughts on e-mail correspondence and school district
policies.
We strongly suggest checking with an attorney or your school to verify that this information applies to your school district. Different school districts have different rules and guidelines, and although this should be valid in most instances, your school district may be different.
- The only thing that can be excluded from the record is personal notes used by the teacher and never intended for viewing by any other person. Two party communications do not fall under that definition, since they are, by their very nature, meant to be viewed by others. Examine your state statutes to verify whether or not this is the case in your school district.
- It's likely that the exception they are trying to use is "(1) Records of instructional, supervisory, and administrative personnel and educational personnel ancillary to those persons that are kept in the sole possession of the maker of the record, and are not accessible or revealed to any other person except a temporary substitute for the maker of the record".
If you check the school district's e-mail policy, it almost certainly states specifically that e-mail received through the district is the property of the district and reserves the right of the school district to monitor employee e-mails, thus eliminating the "not accessible to any other person" requirement. That is in addition to the fact that this is a two party communication as mentioned before.
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FAPT article on School Records
State Statutes:
AL-KY
LA-ND
OH-WY and DC
Related Pages
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