Required Notices

Dear Parents and Guardians:

Each year, the Abington School District Student Services and Teaching and Learning Departments share required notices about your student(s) for the coming school year.

This communication is to advise you of the assessment program scheduled for the 2026-2027 school year, and the District’s practice with respect to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA).

Additional required notices for 2026-2027 may be found under the Student Services Department page.

The assessment program, which was approved by the Board of School Directors at their August 11, 2026, meeting, is designed to provide information regarding the proficiency of students on assessments of achievement and aptitude, as well as, provide information to the District on the effectiveness of our programs.

We believe that the information obtained as part of our assessment program is vital to the development of programs that maximize the growth of every student in the Abington School District. In addition, the results of Federal and state assessments provide a continuing record of each student’s academic progress as compared with students throughout the nation, and on selected assessments throughout the state.

The District is committed to providing testing environments that are conducive to good performance. Teachers and principals may modify classroom arrangements or create small groups to accommodate the needs of all students in the standardized assessment program. Specific concerns regarding your child and this assessment program should be referred to your child’s elementary school principal or secondary school counselor.

Your child’s scores on these assessments will be reviewed periodically and maintained in the Official School Record. Should your child transfer to another school system, you will be notified of the transfer of the school records.

Further information regarding the Abington School District’s assessment program is available through your student’s school principal, or on our website.

In addition to the Federal, state and other standardized assessments, all students will participate in curriculum-based assessments for the subject areas in which they are enrolled. Also included is the administration of brief, anonymous surveys. Students in grades 3-12 will participate in the Pennsylvania School Climate Survey, which is provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to provide our schools with climate data for use with our needs assessments, program development and improvement planning. The surveys are anonymous and not part of a student’s record.

The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) affords parents of elementary and secondary students certain rights regarding the conduct of surveys, collection and use of information for marketing purposes, and certain physical exams. The complete PPRA notice can be found at Required Notices - PPRA.

A copy of your child’s Official School Record is available for your inspection. Should you wish to examine your child’s school records, you may arrange to do so by contacting your child’s elementary school principal or secondary school counselor. If you wish to examine additional school records, you may do so by putting your request in writing and specifying the records you wish to review. You have the right to question the contents of these records in compliance with FERPA. You have the right to file a complaint concerning alleged failures by the District to comply with FERPA with the Family Policy Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20202-8520. A link to the FERPA Notice can be found on our website under Required Notices - FERPA.

It is the parent/guardian’s responsibility to ensure that the demographic information in the Official School Record and on Skyward is up-to-date, including: address; home, work and cell phone numbers; e-mail addresses; and names of emergency contact people. The Official School Record should include information regarding custodial arrangements. In the absence of a court order, the District will assume both parents have custodial rights and information will be disseminated accordingly. Parents/guardians have the right to provide written consent before the school discloses personally identifiable information from the student's education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.

Some school publications, such as Abington School District’s website or other electronic media publications, yearbooks, activity programs, and athletic eligibility lists, may contain directory-type information about your child, or photographs related to their participation in activities or honors/awards received. Additionally, during the school year, staff of the Abington School District and media representatives may want to interview, photograph or videotape your child for use in publications, television reports, public presentations, websites, or other electronic media publications. The photographs may be of groups of students or individuals, and the students’ names may be used.

In addition, students may be involved in a wide variety of activities that may involve photo and/or video recording for the purpose of promoting their school, school-sponsored programs or activities, or the Abington School District. It is an established practice to publicize and promote many of the positive and newsworthy activities that occur throughout the year. Publication of student photos and videos for public relations/promotional purposes could be in places such as, among others, the District website, District-sponsored social media, presentations to the Board of School Directors, and other promotional materials shared with the local community for the purposes stated above. The collection, use or sharing of any images/videos collected, used, or otherwise shared (which are not considered student records) will be done in a way that ensures that confidential information about your child’s educational program is not revealed.

If you do not consent to the use of your child’s photographic or video images by the District as outlined above, you must indicate so in writing to your student’s principal within 10 days of receipt of this correspondence. Please be sure to include your child’s name, grade level and school.