Opinion ID: 780172
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Taylor's FERPA claim

Text: 62 Before considering the merits of Taylor's FERPA claim, we must first determine whether Taylor may bring a § 1983 action for an alleged violation of FERPA's record-access provisions. At the time Taylor filed her complaint, it was settled law in this Circuit that FERPA's record-access provisions created rights enforceable through a § 1983 action. See Fay v. S. Colonie Cent. Sch. Dist., 802 F.2d 21, 33 (2d Cir.1986) (allowing plaintiff to recover actual damages for a violation of FERPA's record-access provisions). Subsequent to oral argument in this case, however, the Supreme Court handed down a decision which calls Fay's continuing validity into question. In Gonzaga University v. Doe, 536 U.S. 273, 122 S.Ct. 2268, 153 L.Ed.2d 309 (2002), the Court explicitly overturned this Circuit's decision in Brown v. City of Oneonta, 106 F.3d 1125 (2d Cir.1997), and held that the non-disclosure provisions of FERPA, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1), do not confer federal rights enforceable through a § 1983 action. 122 S.Ct. at 2271-72 & n. 2. We ordered additional briefing from the parties to help us resolve whether, in light of Gonzaga, Fay is still good law. Cf. Finkel v. Stratton Corp., 962 F.2d 169, 174-75 (2d Cir.1992) (noting that one panel may revisit a prior panel's decision if an intervening Supreme Court decision casts doubt on the prior holding). For the reasons that follow, we hold that Gonzaga compels the conclusion that Fay is no longer good law. 63 Several other circuits have stated in dicta and without discussion that Gonzaga applies to FERPA broadly, rather than only to the non-disclosure provisions of § 1232g(b). See Mo. Child Care Ass'n v. Cross, 294 F.3d 1034, 1040 n. 8 (8th Cir. 2002) (In Gonzaga, the Court holds that [FERPA], which provides for a review board established by the Secretary of Education to hear individual complaints of violations of the statute's provisions, does not create any individual rights ... that are enforceable in private actions under § 1983.); United States v. Miami Univ., 294 F.3d 797, 809 n. 11 (6th Cir.2002) (In Gonzaga University v. Doe, the Supreme Court held that the FERPA does not create personal rights that an individual may enforce through 42 U.S.C. § 1983.). But cf. Blessing v. Freestone, 520 U.S. 329, 342, 117 S.Ct. 1353, 137 L.Ed.2d 569 (1997) (holding that the proper inquiry in determining whether a particular statute is privately enforceable is not whether a statute as an undifferentiated whole grants an enforceable right to a particular class of plaintiffs, but rather whether a specific provision of the statute confers such rights). Although Gonzaga's discussion does appear to be limited to the § 1232g(b) non-disclosure provisions, we need not determine whether Gonzaga's express holding applies to § 1232g in its entirety because, applying the analysis set forth in Gonzaga, we conclude that plaintiff does not have the personal right required for a § 1983 claim under § 1232g(a). 64 Gonzaga clarifies that [a] court's role in discerning whether personal rights exist in the § 1983 context should ... not differ from its role in discerning whether personal rights exist in the implied right of action context. 122 S.Ct. at 2276. Under both tests, we must initially decide if the statutory language unambiguously confer[s] an enforceable right upon an identifiable class of beneficiaries. Id. at 2275 (quoting Suter v. Artist M., 503 U.S. 347, 363, 112 S.Ct. 1360, 118 L.Ed.2d 1 (1992)). Only after this threshold issue is decided do the standards diverge. Id. at 2274. Under the implied cause of action doctrine, a court must additionally inquire whether Congress intended to create a private remedy, see Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275, 286, 121 S.Ct. 1511, 149 L.Ed.2d 517 (2001), while under our § 1983 analysis, we determine if Congress foreclosed a § 1983 remedy either expressly or impliedly through the creation of a comprehensive administrative enforcement scheme, see Blessing, 520 U.S. at 341, 117 S.Ct. 1353. 65 In Fay, this Circuit ruled that FERPA's record-access provisions, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(a)(1), do not create an implied cause of action but could support a suit under § 1983. 802 F.2d at 33. Fay did not address the threshold issue identified by the Gonzaga Court in rendering either of these holdings. Citing to Girardier v. Webster College, 563 F.2d 1267, 1276-77 (8th Cir.1977), we based our conclusion that FERPA does not contain an implied cause of action on the statute's failure to evince a Congressional intent to create a privately enforceable remedy. Id. With respect to the issue whether FERPA could be enforced pursuant to § 1983, Fay implicitly assumed that § 1232g(a)(1) conferred a federal right, and passed immediately to the question of whether Congress... create[d] so comprehensive a system of enforcing the statute as to demonstrate an intention to preclude a remedy under section 1983. 802 F.2d at 33. Finding that it did not, we held that the record-access provisions were enforceable under § 1983. Id. 66 Because Fay did not explicitly apply the standard announced by the Gonzaga Court — that is, whether the statutory language unambiguously confers a federal right on a class of beneficiaries — we must conduct our own analysis of § 1232g(a)(1). That analysis begins with Gonzaga's discussion of § 1232g(b)(1). 67 In Gonzaga, the Supreme Court examined the specific language of FERPA's non-disclosure provisions, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1), 12 as well as the structure of the statute, and stated that we have never before held, and decline to do so here, that spending legislation drafted in terms resembling those of FERPA can confer enforceable rights. 122 S.Ct. at 2273. The Supreme Court held, first, that the non-disclosure provisions entirely lack the sort of `rights-creating' language critical to showing the requisite congressional intent to create new rights. Id. at 2277 (quoting Sandoval, 532 U.S. at 288-89, 121 S.Ct. 1511). The Court contrasted subsection (b) to the individually-focused statutes the Court had previously found privately enforceable. Id. (citing Cannon v. Univ. of Chicago, 441 U.S. 677, 99 S.Ct. 1946, 60 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) (holding that an implied private cause of action exists under Title IX, which states that [n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied to the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance)). The Court noted that the non-disclosure provisions are both directions to the Secretary of Education and commands to make no funds available to educational institutions that have in place the disfavored policy or practice, thus suggesting an aggregate focus rather than an emphasis on individual rights. Id. (Th[e] focus is two steps removed from the interests of individual students and parents and clearly does not confer the sort of ` individual entitlement' that is enforceable under § 1983.) (quoting Blessing, 520 U.S. at 343, 117 S.Ct. 1353). 68 The records-access provisions at issue here read, in pertinent part: 69 No funds shall be made available under any applicable program to any educational agency or institution which has a policy of denying, or which effectively prevents, the parents of students who are or have been in attendance at a school of such agency or at such institution, as the case may be, the right to inspect and review the education records of their children. If any material or document in the education record of a student includes information on more than one student, the parents of one of such students shall have the right to inspect and review only such part of such material or document as relates to such student or to be informed of the specific information contained in such part of such material. Each educational agency or institution shall establish appropriate procedures for the granting of a request by parents for access to the education records of their children within a reasonable period of time, but in no case more than forty-five days after the request has been made. 70 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(a)(1)(A). Section 1232g(a)(1)(C) lists the materials that will not be made available to students, which includes documents to which a student has explicitly waived his or her right of access. Id. § 1232g(a)(1)(C)(iii). Finally, § 1232g(a)(1)(D) provides that [a] student or a person applying for admission may waive his right of access to confidential statements. 71 Section 1232g(a)(1)(A) thus combines elements of both the funding-prohibition language that the Gonzaga Court held does not confer an individual right and the individually focused language that evidences an intent to create an enforceable right. The records-access provisions, like the non-disclosure provisions, speak directly to the Secretary of Education. In this respect, the statute focuses on the prohibition of federal funding. While the remainder of § 1232g(a)(1)(A) does not exclusively concern actions to be taken by the Secretary of Education, the language of the second sentence can be construed as a more detailed descriptor of the general policy, announced in the first sentence, that educational institutions are required to implement with respect to record access. Thus, rather than directly conferring rights on parents, the second sentence can be read as acting as a limitation on which records schools should make available. 72 Although the references to a parent's right in the funding-prohibition section of § 1232g(a) admittedly place a greater emphasis on the benefitted class of parents than does § 1232g(b), the Gonzaga Court noted that a mere reference to a parental right is not determinative: 73 [The dissent] would have us look to other provisions in FERPA that use the term rights to define the obligations of educational institutions that receive federal funds.... [The dissent] then suggests that any reference to rights, even as a shorthand means of describing standards and procedures imposed on funding recipients, should give rise to a statute's enforceability under § 1983. This argument was rejected in Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 18-20, 101 S.Ct. 1531, 67 L.Ed.2d 694 (1981) (no presumption of enforceability merely because a statute speaks in terms of `rights'), and it is particularly misplaced here since Congress enacted FERPA years before [ Maine v. ] [ Maine v. ] Thiboutot [, 448 U.S. 1, 100 S.Ct. 2502, 65 L.Ed.2d 555 (1980)] declared that statutes can ever give rise to rights enforceable by § 1983. 74 122 S.Ct. at 2278 n. 7. Although the rights language of § 1232g(a) is stronger than that used in § 1232g(b), because the language in § 1232g(a) can be read as simply modifying the terms imposed on fund-receiving institutions, we cannot say that it creates an  unambiguously conferred right. Gonzaga, 122 S.Ct. at 2275 (emphasis added). 75 The Gonzaga Court also found significant that the non-disclosure provisions prohibited an institutional policy or practice, not individual instances of disclosure. Id. at 2278. Section 1232g(a) likewise begins by making clear that it applies to institutions that have a policy of denying, or which effectively prevent[], the parents of students ... the right to inspect and review the education records of their children. Again, while the record-access provisions may contain a greater individual focus than the non-disclosure provisions, in that institutions that effectively prevent parents from exercising their rights could do so on either an individual or an aggregate level, we do not find in this language an unambiguous expression of congressional intent to confer an individual right enforceable by § 1983. 76 Accordingly, because we find that Gonzaga compels the conclusion that FERPA's records-access provisions, § 1232(g)(a)(1), do not create a personal right enforceable under § 1983, we overrule Fay v. South Colonie Central School District, 802 F.2d 21 (2d Cir.1986), to the extent that our holding today contradicts it. 13