Request Letter Template

Any parent or guardian of a child in a public or school that receives federal funding (which can include charter schools and some homeschool programs) is eligible to participate.

Please fill out the required fields. This allows us to track requests. We will not share your contact information with anyone. Once you fill out these fields, a Word document of the letter template will automatically download. Fill out the template and send to the contact person in your school district to request your child’s data (see below for detailed Next Steps).

Your district has 45 days to respond to your request and provide you access to your child’s EdTech records. Depending on how your district responds, you may be eligible to file a complaint with the Department of Education.

Thank you so much for your support in helping fight to protect our children!

Next Steps

Dear Volunteer,

Thank you so much for offering to support our efforts to test FERPA and thanks for your patience.

Here are the steps to take:

Step 1. Visit your school district’s website. Find the contact info for student records requests. You may be able to find this by searching “student records” or “FERPA.” Some districts may not have a dedicated email address for records requests. 

You may also want to find the email addresses for your school district’s legal counsel, your school district’s Superintendent, and your district’s School Board and COPY them on your request letter. This will help ensure a proper paper trail.

If you can’t find these email addresses, a general contact email address will suffice. Look for a “Contact Us” page. 

Step 2. Gather, to the extent possible, a list of the technology platforms that your school district uses. Commonly used platforms include Google, Zoom, Canvas/Instructure, Seesaw, Schoology, OneNote, NearPod, Microsoft Teams, Naviance, and Go Guardian. Your school district’s website may keep a list of the platforms it uses, but it may not. Asking your child or other parents might help track them down. 

Step 3. Fill out the form letter requesting your child’s student data and email it to the contact person in your District.

Step 4. Wait for a response. By law, your school has 45 days to respond. In our experience districts are unlikely to fully comply within this time frame. This is to be expected. However, it is still important to make the request, because even a non-response will show that FERPA is not working as designed. 

Step 5: If you would like to keep us posted on the responses you get (or don't get), we are always eager to hear how things go!

Thank you again for your support. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Many thanks,
The Student Data Privacy Project team