For-profit Kentucky college sanctioned $126,000 after “meritless” claim of FERPA secrecy

Colleges are adept at frivolously crying "student privacy!" to conceal information that might expose institutional wrongdoing, but one Kentucky college is learning that misuse of the federal student confidentiality statute can carry a heavy price.A circuit court judge in Franklin County, Ky., is fining Lexington-based National College $1,000 per day for raising unfounded legal arguments in refusing to obey a subpoena from the state's attorney general, Jack Conway, demanding disclosure of internal college records dealing with marketing, employee compensation, student complaints and other management practices.The attorney general's office is seeking National's records as part of an ongoing lawsuit that alleges National made deceptive advertising claims inflating the successful job-placement rate of its graduates.