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ARTICLE · 22 OCTOBER 2014

Which Privacy Protections Apply? HIPAA, FERPA And Ebola

Fox Rothschild LLP
Fox Rothschild LLP
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Recent news articles regarding a New Jersey elementary school’s handling of the enrollment of two new students from Rwanda provided another glimpse of Ebola hysteria and the opportunity for me to follow up on Bill Maruca’s blog about Ebola and HIPAA with yet another (fairly obscure) statutory acronym.

United StatesPrivacy
Elizabeth Litten
Elizabeth Litten
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Recent news articles regarding a New Jersey elementary school's handling of the enrollment of two new students from Rwanda provided another glimpse of Ebola hysteria and the opportunity for me to follow up on Bill Maruca's blog about Ebola and HIPAA with yet another (fairly obscure) statutory acronym.  When it comes to protecting the privacy of students, HIPAA often does not even apply and it's the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA, that matters.

The New Jersey elementary school apparently recognized that it had overreacted when it first announced that the Rwanda students' parents would keep their children at home for 21 days.  The school posted a revised website notice stating that it would "welcome the new students whose parents graciously offered to keep them close this week."  Setting aside the fact that Rwanda is located in East Africa, more than 2,500 miles away from the West African countries that have been reported to be affected by

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