Question: Rosters

We are having a hard time getting cooperation/access to student rosters or parent/guardian information for simple things like email addresses, etc. What are the legal guidelines? Makes it impossible to handle little things like the lost and found because we don't know what student is in what class and have no contact info for parents so even things with names go unclaimed. If parents do not know about us then they don't reach out to us also......

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Community Advice

de233 writes:
Getting cooperation from who? The school? You don't need the parents emails, addresses unless they offer that to you. I don't think the school should be giving out that information. All you need to do is send something home with the students that tells them who you are, etc. A welcome letter, back to school letter, ways to volunteer, etc..... something along those lines.

Community Advice

mum24kids writes:
This is covered by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Rosters by class, you probably can't get. But basic contact information should be released by the school to you. Email addresses are a bit more tricky because it depends on whether the school counts that as "directory information." See more here: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html