PPRA Gives Parents Some Level of Control Over Their Child's What?

The answer

The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) gives parents some level of control over their child's participation in survey research conducted in schools, plus the right to inspect instructional materials and surveys before they are administered. Specifically, PPRA requires schools and contractors to obtain written parental consent before a minor takes part in any U.S. Department of Education-funded survey, analysis, or evaluation that reveals information about one of eight "protected" areas: political affiliations, mental or psychological problems, sex behavior or attitudes, illegal or self-incriminating behavior, critical appraisals of family members, legally privileged relationships (such as with lawyers or clergy), religious practices, and family income.

So when an exam item asks what PPRA lets parents control, the correct completion is their child's participation in third-party or protected-topic survey research — and the ability to review the instruments involved.

Why "medical records" is wrong

The classic distractor is "medical records." PPRA is a survey-and-instructional-materials law, not a health-records law. A child's medical records are governed by other statutes depending on where the record lives:

• FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) protects education records, including health records maintained by a school, and gives parents the right to inspect and request corrections to those records.
• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) protects medical records held by covered health-care providers and insurers — but notably, records that fall under FERPA are excluded from HIPAA.

Because a student's medical information is handled by FERPA or HIPAA, it is not the thing PPRA controls. Picking "medical records" confuses three separate privacy laws that exam writers deliberately place side by side.

PPRA vs FERPA vs HIPAA

The reason this question trips students up is that all three laws protect student or child information, so they blur together. The clean distinction:

• PPRA — controls surveys and instructional materials. Parental consent for protected-topic surveys; right to opt out and inspect.
• FERPA — controls education records. Right to inspect, amend, and limit disclosure of the records a school keeps.
• HIPAA — controls protected health information held by health-care entities, not schools.

A useful memory hook: PPRA is about what a school asks a child (surveys) and what it teaches (materials); FERPA is about what a school records; HIPAA is about what a doctor knows.

The bigger picture

PPRA was strengthened by the No Child Left Behind Act, which added the requirement that districts adopt policies — developed with parents — on the administration of surveys and the collection of student information for marketing. It also gave parents the right to opt a child out of certain non-emergency physical exams and third-party marketing surveys. Understanding PPRA as the "surveys and materials" law, distinct from the "records" law (FERPA) and the "health provider" law (HIPAA), lets you answer any variation of this question correctly.