Law / United States / 
Nebraska
Public school student files and records: access, confidentiality, destruction, data sharing and the board's student records policy
Student files and records, Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-2,104 and 79-539
In force.
A sensitive categories rule binding government bodies.
- Obligation class
- Data subject rights, Retention, Governance
What it requires
- If you are a public school, give a student, and the student's parents, guardians, teachers, counselors and school administrators, access to the school's files or records maintained concerning the student, including the right to inspect, review and obtain copies (Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-2,104(1)).
- Do not give any other person access to the files or records, or divulge their contents to an unauthorized person, unless a parent, guardian or student of majority age gives written consent or subsection (3) of the section allows it (79-2,104(1)).
- Maintain the files or records so that academic and disciplinary matters are kept separate, and remove and destroy disciplinary material after the student's continuous absence from the school for three years (79-2,104(1)).
- Do not charge a fee to search for or retrieve a student's files or records, and do not let a reproduction fee prevent a parent from inspecting and reviewing them (79-2,104(2)).
- If you are an auditing official or a state educational authority and the law specifically authorizes you to collect personally identifiable data on individual students, protect that data so that no one other than the officials the section lists can personally identify the students and their parents, and destroy it when it is no longer needed for the audit, evaluation or enforcement of legal requirements (79-2,104(3)(a)).
- Share student data, records and information with other school districts, educational service units, learning communities and the State Department of Education whenever applicable law permits, unless otherwise prohibited by law (79-2,104(4)).
- If you are the school board or board of education of a school district, adopt and publish an official policy respecting student records that does not conflict with the State Records Administrator's rules and regulations under the Records Management Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. 79-539).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
What this law does
A student in a public school, or the student's parents, guardians, teachers, counselors or school administrators, has access to the school's files or records maintained concerning the student, including the right to inspect, review and obtain copies of them. No other person may have access to those files or records except when a parent, guardian or student of majority age provides written consent or as subsection (3) of the section provides.
The contents of the files or records may not be divulged in any manner to any unauthorized person. The files or records must be maintained so as to separate academic and disciplinary matters, and all disciplinary material must be removed and destroyed after a student's continuous absence from the school for a period of three years.
When collection of personally identifiable data is specifically authorized by law, data that auditing officials or state educational authorities collect about individual students must be protected so that no one other than the officials listed can personally identify the students and their parents, and the data must be destroyed when no longer needed for the audit, evaluation or enforcement.
Disclosure of student records to any other person or entity the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 allows to have access is not precluded. The State Board of Education must adopt rules providing for and requiring the uniform sharing of student data, records and information among school districts, educational service units, learning communities and the State Department of Education.
Section 79-539 requires the school board or board of education of each school district to adopt and publish an official policy respecting personnel files and student records, which may not conflict with the rules and regulations of the State Records Administrator adopted under the Records Management Act. Legislative Bill 262 was approved by the Governor on and added the duties relating to sharing of student data, records and information to the section.
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