House lawmakers have circulated a discussion draft proposal that would overhaul the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Education Week reports. The proposal, released Monday by the Education and the Workforce Committee’s bipartisan leadership, would expand the definition of what constitutes a student’s “educational record” and would place a ban on selling such records to third parties or marketers. State and local education organizations would be subject to new obligations when contracting vendors that handle sensitive information, and the proposal would allow fines of up to $500,000 for violations. Data Quality Campaign’s Paige Kowalski said, “This is a wholesale revision of what FERPA is,” and the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s Khaliah Barnes said, “This is a strong, purposeful draft that would strengthen FERPA.” Editor’s Note: For the current status of education privacy legislation in the U.S., see the IAPP Resource Center.
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