ClearRecord helps schools and universities securely delete individual student education records from operational workstations when retention periods expire, with tamper-evident audit logs and destruction certificates for compliance documentation.
The regulation
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, 20 U.S.C. 1232g) protects the privacy of student education records at institutions that receive federal funding. While FERPA is primarily known for governing access and disclosure, it also has direct implications for how institutions handle records at end-of-life:
State education departments typically mandate specific retention periods: 3-7 years for general student records, with permanent retention for transcripts. FERPA violations can result in loss of federal funding, an existential risk for educational institutions.
Requirements mapping
| FERPA requirement | How ClearRecord addresses it |
|---|---|
| 20 U.S.C. 1232g(b)(1) Prevent unauthorized disclosure | NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 Clear-level sanitization ensures deleted files cannot be recovered. Zero-overwrite for HDDs, cryptographic erase for BitLocker SSDs. |
| 34 CFR 99.3 All education records covered | ClearRecord monitors configurable folders on each workstation: Downloads, Desktop, Documents, Recycle Bin, and custom paths. Catches student records wherever staff save them. |
| 34 CFR 99.10 Demonstrate proper disposal | Destruction certificates with student record-specific language, detailed event logs, NIST 800-88 method per file, and tamper-evident hash chain verification. |
| State retention periods | Per-folder retention windows configurable to match your state requirements. Policy groups allow different retention periods for different departments. |
| Audit trail | 5-year log retention (FERPA pack default). Encrypted database with hash-chained records. Tamper detection built in. |
| Access controls | Role-based access (Admin/Manager/Viewer). Only authorized staff can view deletion logs or generate certificates. Deactivated users ejected within 5 minutes. |
For schools and universities
Policy groups let admissions, registrar, financial aid, and counseling offices each have their own retention windows. Workstations are assigned to groups and inherit the right policy automatically.
FERPA destruction certificates use education-specific attestation language referencing 20 U.S.C. 1232g and your institution's record retention schedule. Ready for state audits.
No student data leaves your campus network. No cloud storage, no external servers. Compatible with institutions that restrict cloud services for student data.
The agent installs as a Windows service in minutes. Runs silently in the background. No impact on staff workflows. Deploy manually or via Group Policy for large campuses.
Common questions
FERPA (20 U.S.C. 1232g) requires educational institutions to protect the privacy of student education records. When records are no longer needed for their original purpose, institutions must ensure destruction methods prevent unauthorized access. FERPA does not mandate a specific retention period, but institutions must maintain records as long as they are needed and destroy them securely when the retention period expires.
FERPA itself does not specify a minimum retention period. However, most state education departments require 3-7 years for general student records, and permanent retention for transcripts and immunization records. ClearRecord defaults to 5-year log retention for the FERPA pack, and administrators can adjust per-folder retention to match their state requirements.
Yes. ClearRecord generates destruction certificates that document every file deleted, when it was deleted, the NIST 800-88 method used, which workstation it was on, and who was responsible. The tamper-evident hash chain proves no records have been altered. These certificates satisfy auditor requirements for demonstrating proper disposal procedures.
No. ClearRecord runs entirely on your local network. No student names, filenames, deletion logs, or any other data leaves your premises. The only external communication is an optional monthly license validation call that contains no student data.
Yes. ClearRecord supports policy groups that let you assign different retention windows to different workstation groups. For example, admissions workstations might have a 3-year retention policy for application files, while the registrar's workstations have a 7-year policy for enrollment records.
Contact us to schedule a demo. We will walk you through setup for your school or university.
Request a Demo