ETHICS: FERPA for Counselors

This course counts as 5 continuing education hours.

This course is designed for counselors who work with school data.  This includes school counselors (including higher education), counselors who work for outside agencies and come to schools to work with individual children, and counselors who work in private practice but communicate with schools about students.   This course discusses how FERPA may apply to the work you do as a certified counselor and also clarifies intersections and distinctions with other applicable laws, including IDEA 2004 and HIPAA.

Course Activities:
Lessons 1-4 with Practice Quizzes, which includes two course readings and course text on applications specific to counselors
Course Reading 1: Department of Education FAQs
Course reading 2: Joint Guidance on Amendments to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act by the Uninterrupted Scholars Act (May 2014)
Course reading 3: IDEA and FERPA Confidentiality Provisions (June 2014)
Course Reading 4: Joint Guidance on Amendments to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to Student Health Records (November 2008)

Educational Objectives:
Participants will correctly identify the definition of educational records
Participants will demonstrate application of FERPA as it pertains to the work of counselors
Participants will demonstrate knowledge of procedures for remaining compliant with FERPA

Target Audience:  Certified counselors who work with schools in any capacity (employer/contractor)

Format:  Online self-study

Instructor:  Valerie Evans, Ph.D.

General Statement Access CEU has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6689. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Access CEU is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

This Access CEU course is based on primary documentation from the United States Department of Education (ED) and was neither developed nor endorsed by ED.


Course Instructions: Read the material in Lesson 1 and take the practice quiz at the bottom of the page. After you have answered the practice questions, move on to the next lesson. When content is complete, take the final quiz until an 70% correct is achieved. Your certificate of course completion will be generated automatically.

E-learning education or internet library. Conceptual image

Look for the laptop with books displayed for course reading documents.  A button will be displayed with a link to more reading.  All readings are from .gov sources and pertain to implementation of FERPA.

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