According to the United States Department of Education (USDE), "the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education." This law is supposed to be enforced by the USDE Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) which states at the top of its web site that,

"The mission of the Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) is to meet the needs of the Department's primary customers--learners of all ages--by effectively implementing two laws that seek to ensure student and parental rights in education: the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA)."

While this may appear to be a rather useful law, the fact is that the FPCO ignores their own mission and not only fails to investigate legitimate complaints in a timely (or even untimely) manner but, once violations of the law are found, they also refuse to enforce FERPA. There can be no question that the FPCO literally ignores its primary customers - students of all ages. Then, to make matters worse, the Federal courts can't (or won't) compel schools to comply with the law and requests for assistance from elected officials (members of Congress) get ignored.

This site has been created to report on the failure of the United States Department of Education, Family Policy Compliance Office to do their job and all of the problems that their "primary customers" - students and their parents have encountered as a result. As a government agency, the FPCO is also accountable to taxpayers and is therefore fully accountable to the "primary customers" they are supposed to serve. When an agency fails to do their job, the public has a right to demand why, as well as demand for changes to ensure that laws are enforced.

The FERPA Watchdog will be reporting on the activities of government "lifers" (public servants who get cushy jobs for doing nothing) such as LeRoy Rooker who, as the Director of the USDE Family Policy Compliance Office, has been at the helm since 1988 - far too long for someone who won't do his job to enforce the law. According to one web site,

"LeRoy Rooker directs the U.S. Department of Education’s Family Policy Compliance Office. In that capacity, he administers laws and policies designed to help protect the rights of America’s 58 million students.

"Among his major responsibilities is the administration of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a comprehensive federal law that provides privacy protections for student education records. Sometimes referred to as the Buckley Amendment, FERPA affords parents and students the right to obtain access to education records, as well as the right to exercise some control over the disclosure of information from those records.

"Mr. Rooker’s staff also oversees the enforcement of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), which requires schools to obtain prior written consent before students are required to submit to specific types of U.S. Department of Education-funded surveys which elicit information on certain issues of a personal nature.

"In addition to investigating alleged violations of FERPA, PPRA, and Military Recruiter provisions of NCLB, Mr. Rooker’s office issues interpretations of the three laws based on new or revised legislation or policy considerations, and provides compliance training to major associations and schools.

"Mr. Rooker has served in his current capacity since February 1988. Before that, he was special assistant to the Department’s deputy secretary for management."

As LeRoy Rooker and his staff won't enforce FERPA, this site will also be reporting on their salaries, expenditures, budget, etc. as well as on the number of FERPA complaints that the FPCO refuses to investigate in a timely manner.

Equally disturbing is the fact that Federal Courts won't compel schools that intentionally violate FERPA to produce education records (as required by law) and elected officials either can't or won't get the FPCO to do their job. This can have devastating effects upon the FPCO's "primary customers" while, at the same time, allowing the schools that are supposed to serve millions of Americans to violate the law. The refusal of LeRoy Rooker and the USDE FPCO to enforce the law is so severe that their failures actually subject students to gross invasion of their privacy and abuses by courts and other government agencies while, at the same time, allowing millions of taxpayer dollars to flow into schools that ignore the law. Essentially, it's a win-win situation for USDE employees, unethical school officials, lawyers, judges, elected officials, and just about everyone else who stands to make a buck by ignoring the law. The only losers are the FPCO's "primary customers."