FERPA
FERPA is a federal law that protects the records PIC creates about your child's early intervention services, like evaluations, IFSPs, and service notes. It gives you the right to see those records, ask us to fix mistakes, and decide who else can see them. PIC is required by law to remind you of these rights every year.
What This Protects
FERPA covers the records PIC creates and keeps as part of your child's early intervention program. At PIC this includes intake and enrollment records, evaluations and assessment results, your child's Individualized Family Service Plan and all updated versions of it, service notes and progress records, attendance and visit logs, referral documents, and transition planning records. This is the large majority of what PIC keeps about your child. FERPA does not cover billing records or health records PIC receives from outside providers, those are covered by HIPAA.
How HIPAA and FERPA Work Together
HIPAA and FERPA are two different federal laws that protect different types of records at PIC. Most of your child's records, like evaluations, IFSPs, service notes, and progress reports, are covered by FERPA because they are early intervention education records. Records related to billing and health records PIC receives from your child's other providers are covered by HIPAA. Both laws give you similar rights: to see your child's records, ask for corrections, and control who else can see them. The main difference is where you file a complaint if something goes wrong. FERPA complaints go to the U.S. Department of Education. HIPAA complaints go to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. PIC's Privacy Officer can help you figure out which type of record is involved and where to direct your concern.
What This Looks Like for Your Family
When your family starts the process at PIC, you will receive a FERPA Annual Notice. This explains what records PIC keeps about your child and what your rights are. You will be asked to sign it each year to confirm you received it. Day to day, FERPA means that PIC will not share your child's early intervention records with anyone outside PIC without your written permission, with a few exceptions allowed by law, like sharing with the Alaska Early Intervention and Infant Learning Programor other providers working directly with your child as part of the IFSP team. When it is time to transition your child out of early intervention, FERPA rules also guide how PIC handles your child's records and who they can be shared with during that process. If you ever want to know what is in your child's file, you can ask and we will give you access within 45 days.
What You Can Ask For
You have the right to ask for any of the following at any time:
A copy of any early intervention record PIC keeps about your child. A copy of PIC's FERPA Annual Notice. A correction to anything in your child's records that you believe is wrong. If PIC says no to a correction, you have the right to ask for a formal hearing, and if the hearing also says no, you can write a statement that will be kept in your child's file. Written permission must be obtained before PIC shares your child's early intervention records with anyone not covered by the law's exceptions. You can also file a complaint if you ever feel your FERPA rights have not been respected. Contact PIC's Privacy Officer, Micheala Phillips, at (907) 550-3087 or mphillips@picak.org, or file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Family Policy Compliance Office at studentprivacy.ed.gov or (202) 260-3887. Filing a complaint will never affect your child's services.