Too often, schools will wrongly deny a public records request citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The act only covers the confidentiality of educational records, but education officials have sometimes tried to use FERPA to deny access to things like security video from a school bus, employment records of students who have jobs with institutions, parking tickets, litigation settlements.
The Student Law Press Center has excellent resources for understanding FERPA. Knowing the law is the best way to preserve access to government information.
