The Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA) was enacted in 1974
to ensure (1) that parents of students, or students over the age of 18 or
attending an institution of post-secondary education, had access to their
education records, and (2) to protect the student's right to privacy by limiting
the transferability and disclosure of educational records without consent. To
have FERPA protection, a document must be an "educational record" of a
"student." A Wisconsin appellate court recently analyzed who is a
"student" under FERPA and what is an "educational record."
In Osborn v. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System,
2001 Wi. App. 209, 634 N.W.2d 563 (2001), Mr. Osborn and the Center for Equal
Opportunity made public record requests to the University of Wisconsin System
for records of applicants and students of its various universities.
Specifically, Osborn sought records relating to standardized test scores, grade
point averages, class rank,
