Since the passage of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) regulating of the maintenance and dissemination of educational records, educators have struggled to meet federal compliance requirements while operating in the daily realities of public schools. Such practices as determining whether a child's cumulative file could be accessed, by whom, and for what purposes suddenly became a matter of federal law. Legal compliance became more elusive in the late 1990's and in the first decade of the twenty-first century with the fracturing of the "family," the passage of other state and federal laws regulating records security, and through computer technology posing unique security challenges to record integrity and maintenance. Until now, educators lacked a single volume resource for directly and confidently answering their questions.

In Educational Records, Murphy and Dishman provide educators with a readily accessible, jargon-free source for legal questions concerning educational records. The book's question-and-answer format, as well as its analysis of court opinions and opinion letters of the United States Department of Education's Family Policy Compliance Office, provides educators with the resource they need to quickly and authoritatively address records issues.