Subpoenaing Education Records
Under the Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act
Paralegal Jane Smith works for an insurance defense firm on a case where the plaintiff is a college student
who claims that he was so badly injured in a car accident that he had to drop out of the courses he was
taking to earn his master’s degree. The plaintiff’s settlement demand includes that semester’s college
tuition and fees, as well as the stipend he would have received from his graduate assistant position. Jane
realizes she needs to confirm whether the plaintiff was enrolled in classes that semester and employed as
a graduate assistant at the time of the accident, and that he withdrew from his courses after the accident.
Jane prepares and serves a subpoena on the plaintiff’s university, requiring that “all education records,
including official transcript, class schedules, attendance records, etc., for John Doe, SSN #####1234,
DOB 01011991, for all dates of attendance” be produced within five days of the service of the subpoena.
However, the next day Jane receives a faxed letter from the university’s general counsel’s office, which
advises that the institution must provide notice to the student that it has received a subpoena for his
records before the records can be provided to her. The letter also states that the university will not be able
to provide the records for another four weeks because of this notice requirement and because the school
will be closed for its spring break. Jane is now in a quandary because that timeline falls two weeks after a
hearing for which the records are needed.
10 Q3 - 2017 www.ParalegalToday.com
By Melany R. Aldridge, CP
/www.ParalegalToday.com