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Most parents have never asked to see their child’s full school file, and most would probably be surprised by what’s in it. A federal law already gives every parent the right to inspect it, along with the right to say no before a school hands their child a survey on subjects like religion, family income, or sexual behavior. A new government reminder sent to school districts as this school year started is putting both rules back in the spotlight, and it’s worth knowing exactly what they cover.
What Happened
On August 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to K-12 school districts nationwide, reminding administrators of their obligations under two federal laws parents rarely hear about by name: the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, known as PPRA. The letter, signed by Student Privacy Policy Director Frank Miller, warns that districts failing to comply risk losing federal funding entirely.
FERPA guarantees parents the right to inspect and review nearly all of their child’s education records on request, including a student’s official file and other records districts sometimes keep separately. PPRA requires schools to get written parental consent before requiring students to complete a survey, evaluation, or analysis that touches on any of six “protected areas”: political affiliation or beliefs, mental or psychological problems, sexual behavior or attitudes, illegal or self-incriminating behavior, religious practices or beliefs, and family income (outside of standard eligibility forms for programs like free lunch).
The Department’s release accompanying the letter points to a specific concern driving the reminder: districts that keep a student’s gender-related records in a separate file, walled off from the records parents normally receive, and schools administering surveys on sensitive topics even after a parent has already declined on their child’s behalf. The Department has opened investigations into several districts over these practices, including a finding against the California Department of Education that threatened $4.9 billion in annual federal education funding to the state. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued in February, arguing the federal government was reading parental rights law more broadly than the statute allows and that no parent had ever actually been denied access to their child’s records.
Where FERPA and PPRA Actually Came From
Neither law is new. FERPA passed in 1974, more than fifty years ago, in response to schools sharing student records with third parties, including law enforcement and employers, without parental knowledge. PPRA followed a few years later, aimed specifically at surveys and psychological testing conducted on students without parental input. Both laws apply to virtually every public school in the country, as nearly all rely on some form of federal education funding, which is the lever the Department of Education is using now to push compliance.
What’s changed recently isn’t the underlying law. It’s enforcement attention. Previous administrations treated the same statutes as a baseline parents could invoke if they asked, without much active monitoring of district practices. The current Department of Education has shifted to actively investigating specific districts and tying compliance directly to federal funding, which is why a fifty-year-old law is generating fresh headlines in 2026.
Where the Disagreement Sits
The dispute breaks down into two separate questions parents can actually track. The first is whether existing federal law already requires broad access to student records and survey consent, which both sides agree it does. FERPA and PPRA aren’t new and aren’t in question. The second is whether specific district practices, like keeping certain records in a separate system, cross the line into unlawfully hiding information from parents, which is where the Department of Education and districts like California’s have landed in direct conflict, now playing out in court.
Frank Miller stated the Department’s position directly in the release: “Parents know what is best for their children. Yet we continue to see schools adopt policies that shut parents out of their children’s lives at school.” California’s response, filed in its lawsuit, argues the federal government presented no evidence that any parent had actually been refused access to a gender support plan, and that the state’s own guidance to local districts already treats those plans as education records covered by FERPA.
How to Actually Request Your Child’s Records
Requesting records is simpler than most parents expect. A short written request, an email or letter to the school registrar or main office, asking to inspect and review your child’s complete education record, starts the clock. Under FERPA, the school has 45 days to make those records available for inspection, though many schools respond faster.
Records covered typically include report cards and transcripts, disciplinary files, standardized test results, individualized education program or 504 plan documents, health forms kept by the school nurse, and any internal notes or communications a district treats as part of a student’s official file. If a school tells you a specific record doesn’t exist or isn’t covered, ask them to point to the specific FERPA exception that applies. Certain categories, like a teacher’s purely personal notes never shared with anyone else, are excluded, but the exceptions are narrower than most districts imply.
FERPA also gives parents a right that goes beyond simply looking at a file: the right to request a correction. If you review your child’s records and find something inaccurate, such as a disciplinary note you believe is wrong or a misspelled diagnosis in a health form, you can submit a written request asking the school to amend it. If the school declines, federal law entitles you to a hearing on the disputed content, and if the school still refuses to change the record after that hearing, you’re allowed to place a written statement of disagreement directly in the file, which travels with the record from then on.
What This Actually Means for Parents
Regardless of where a district lands on the disputed practices, the underlying rights apply everywhere right now, and most parents have never used them. PPRA consent works differently from a records request and requires action before a survey happens, not after. If your child’s school is planning a survey, evaluation, or classroom activity touching political beliefs, mental health, sexual behavior, illegal activity, religious beliefs, or family finances, the school is required to notify you in advance and get written consent, not just offer a decline option after the fact.
If a permission slip like that never showed up before a related activity happened, that’s worth a direct question to the school, in writing, asking which law covers the activity and whether consent should have been requested first. Keep a copy of whatever response you get, along with the date it was sent and the date the school replied. Parents who’ve pushed districts on this report that a written request, referencing FERPA or PPRA by name, tends to get a far faster and more complete answer than an informal question to a teacher or front-office staffer, and having a paper trail helps a great deal if a disagreement over compliance ends up going further than a single email exchange.
One more provision buried in the same guidance: schools that receive federal funding must give military recruiters the same access to student directory information, such as name, address, and phone number, that they give to colleges or employers, unless a parent declines in writing. That written decline is available at any school receiving federal funds, every year, and most parents never file it, simply having no idea it exists.
Where This Leaves Parents
None of this requires waiting for a lawsuit to resolve or picking a side in a policy fight to use. FERPA and PPRA exist independent of any single administration, and a written request for your child’s file, or a written decline from a sensitive survey, works the same way in a district that agrees with the current guidance and one that’s actively fighting it in court. The renewed attention this year is less about new rights than about a reminder that these particular rights have existed all along, mostly unused, tucked into paperwork parents skim past every August.
For a parent trying to stay informed without wading into the politics attached to any single case, the practical move is the same either way: read what the school sends home in August a little more carefully, ask for a copy of your child’s full record at least once, and treat a request for written consent on a sensitive survey as something worth actually reading before signing.
It’s also worth putting a reminder on the calendar for next August. These rights don’t expire after one request. Records grow every year a child stays enrolled, survey consent forms tend to arrive at the start of each school year, and the directory-information decline typically needs to be filed annually rather than once. Treating this as a yearly check-in, alongside back-to-school paperwork most parents already handle, turns a one-time news story into an ongoing habit that costs a few minutes a year and quietly keeps every future school year covered.