FERPA Compliance

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) governs how educational records are created, stored, accessed, and shared. This page explains how the MN School Dashboard operates within FERPA requirements.

Multiple Natures as a school official

Multiple Natures International, LLC operates as a school official under FERPA (34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1)). This means:

• The school or district retains ownership of student educational records
• Multiple Natures processes student data on behalf of the school, under the school’s direction, for a legitimate educational interest
• This relationship is formalized through a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) between your school or district and Multiple Natures International

Under this framework, schools may share student data with Multiple Natures without obtaining separate parental consent, provided the DPA is in place and the use is consistent with the school’s legitimate educational interest in supporting student learning and development.

What constitutes an educational record in the dashboard

The following student data in the MN School Dashboard constitutes educational records under FERPA:

• Nature scores (from the MN assessment)
• Intelligence scores
• Active NatureTypes
• Support flags and flag history
• Counselor notes and calibration notes
• Career starting points

This data is accessible only to authorized staff at the student’s own school. It is never shared with other schools, third parties, or parents without authorization from your school or district.

Parental rights

Under FERPA, parents have the right to inspect educational records. If a parent requests access to their child’s MN profile data, that request should be handled through your school’s standard FERPA records request process. Multiple Natures can provide a data export for a specific student on request from the school administrator — contact support@multiplenatures.com.

Parents do not have direct dashboard access in the current version of the system.

Student rights (students 18 and older)

Students who are 18 or older have the same rights as parents under FERPA. The same process applies — requests for data access are handled through your school’s records request process.

Data breach notification

In the event of a data breach affecting student records, Multiple Natures International will notify affected schools promptly in accordance with applicable law and the terms of the DPA.

Questions from district legal or privacy officers

If your district’s legal team, privacy officer, or FERPA compliance officer has questions about how student data is handled, contact support@multiplenatures.com. We will provide documentation and, if needed, arrange a conversation with our legal or compliance team.