10/10/2026
WRITTEN CONSENT REQUIRED: STOP SURVEYS ON SENSITIVE TOPICS
Parents — under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), students in federally funded programs cannot be required to participate in a survey, analysis, or evaluation that reveals sensitive information without your prior written consent.
The law protects eight areas, including:
• Political beliefs
• Mental or psychological problems of the student or family
• Sexual behavior or attitudes
• Religious practices
• Family income (and others)
An “opt-out” notice buried in a handbook is not the same as affirmative written consent. Written consent puts the burden where it belongs: nothing happens until you’ve seen what the school plans to ask and explicitly said yes.
FAIR’s FERPA & PPRA Parental Rights Template Letter makes it simple. It asks your district to confirm in writing that it obtains prior written parental consent before any sensitive survey or mental health screener, does not keep unofficial records outside your FERPA rights, and makes curriculum available for review.
Download the template letter here:
https://www.fairforall.org/template-letter-require-parental-consent-for-student-surveys/
Send it. Get the answer in writing. Share this with other parents.
🎓 "On October 5, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice sent a joint letter to every state attorney general with a straightforward request: help make sure schools follow federal parental rights laws. The letter asks attorneys general to work with school districts on compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA).
FAIR members may recognize the subject. In September, we shared the Department of Education’s annual back-to-school guidance on these same two laws. The joint letter goes a step further by asking state officials to take an active role in enforcement, so districts will likely feel more pressure to get their practices right."
Find out why written parental consent matters, and how to get answers from your school: https://news.fairforall.org/p/federal-agencies-put-schools-on-notice