Examining the Role of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) on Undocumented Students

• In Event: Navigating Access and Opportunity: Examining Challenges, Resistance, and Possibilities of Undocumented Students' Success in California

Abstract

Objectives and Framework of Significance: Given the upcoming election year, there is an urgent need to understand FERPA better and how it is used by practitioners working with undocumented students, including DACA recipients. DACA is a program of exclusivity that has benefitted at most 800,000 undocumented recipients. State and federal documents passed in support of or against undocumented students provided an opportunity to understand better how language used in policy translates into practice with higher education professionals.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), is a higher education policy that was instituted to protect the privacy of students by restricting any personal information from being released without the student’s written consent (Khatcheressian, 2003, p. 477). Since FERPA is meant to protect students’ data, within today’s anti-immigrant and hostile political climate, it is important to understand to what extent these protections include immigrant and DACA recipients. By allowing higher education institutions to release education records, an “institution may provide personally identifiable information without violating FERPA to the extent that the student has given his or her consent to providing the information” (Khatcheressian, 2003, p. 482). With the upcoming election, there is an urgent need for practitioners to improve the relationship between FERPA and immigrant students, which include undocumented students and DACA recipients.
Methods & Data Sources: This paper employs a case study to collect data from multiple sources of evidence to confirm and corroborate findings (Dyson & Genishi, 2016). Using qualitative methods, I focus on the way society works via people’s lives, behavior, interactions, and narratives (Bogdan & Biklen, 2016). I interviewed seven higher education staff members working within an Undocumented Student Resource Center (USRC) at a University of California campus in Northern CA. The main criteria for individuals to participate in the study were that the practitioners worked in a USRC at a UC campus. Virtual, semi-structured interviews of approximately 1 hour were conducted.
Findings & Significance: The CDA of FERPA suggests that the language is purposely ambiguous and technical, which further complicates its understanding by practitioners in higher education. While conducting interviews with the eight staff members in the Undocumented Student Program at a University of California campus in Northern California, the practitioner shared how they receive training every year on FERPA, but it is one of the many topics covered. Upon further research, the practitioners were unable to conform when they took the FERPA training, its origins, and/or if they knew if undocumented students were mentioned within FERPA’s amendments. Therefore, the results of this research highlight the need to better train and inform higher education practitioners about the importance of protecting undocumented student data as we embark on an anti-immigrant presidency.

Author

• Ariana Aparicio Aguilar, University of California - Riverside