Can student records be transmitted electronically, via the Internet or facsimile?
A. The law requires agencies to prevent the unauthorized release of personally identifiable information from education records. Thus, when student records are transmitted electronically, confidentiality must be protected both by the sender and receiver of information. Agencies must establish procedures for releasing information, and they must continually train officials and clerical staff about their obligation to treat personally identifiable information confidentially. Various experts in the application of FERPA and the uses of electronic data exchange consider facsimile machines to be less secure than the electronic transmission of records. If facsimile machines are to be used, the institutions involved with the exchange of student information must establish security procedures that meet the privacy obligations set out in FERPA. See section 6I.
