On Dec. 9, 2008, the U.S. Department of Education published
final regulations to amend its current rules implementing the
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA protects
educational records held by public and private educational agencies
and institutions ("Schools") receiving funds from the
Department of Education. The new regulations clarify when, how and
to whom a School may provide educational records and provide a path
by which Schools and School service providers can safely and
appropriately safeguard and disclose records directly related to
students that are maintained by the School or its agents. The
revised regulations go into effect on Jan. 8, 2009.
Largely inspired by the Virginia Tech shootings of April 2007,
the regulations provide that a School may disclose the personally
identifiable information of a student to any person whose knowledge
is necessary to protect the health or safety of that student or
others. Schools must determine
