Can I See the Video of the Fight?

Usually yes. If the school kept a surveillance video of the fight and used it to discipline your teenager, the U.S. Department of Education treats that clip as part of your child’s education record. Under the federal student privacy law, FERPA, you have a right to inspect and review it, and the school has to let you within 45 days of your request.

A copy is a separate question, and the answer there is usually no. This page sets out what the rules actually say, where they stop, and how to ask in a way that gets a clear answer.

Is the video really part of my child’s record?

It depends on two things, and the regulation names both. Under 34 CFR 99.3, an education record is one that is “directly related to a student” and “maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution.”

A fight video usually passes the first test. The Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office gives this exact case as its first example in its FAQs on photos and videos: “A school surveillance video showing two students fighting in a hallway, used as part of a disciplinary action, is directly related to the students fighting.” The same FAQ says one video can be the education record of more than one student, and gives two students fighting on a school bus as the example.

The second test is about who keeps it. A clip a parent filmed on a phone at a game is not an education record. If that parent hands a copy to the school and the school keeps it in the students’ discipline files, the school’s copy becomes one. The FAQ uses that example too.

FERPA itself only reaches schools that receive funds under a program run by the U.S. Department of Education, according to 34 CFR 99.1. If your teenager is at a private school, ask the school whether FERPA applies to it before you rely on anything below.

What about the other students in the clip?

A school may raise the other students’ privacy. The rule is more generous to you than that objection sounds.

34 CFR 99.12(a) says that when a record contains information on more than one student, a parent may “inspect and review or be informed of only the specific information about that student.” The Department reads that in two steps. If the school can reasonably blur or cut out the parts about other students without destroying the meaning of the record, it must do so before showing you. If it cannot, the parents of each student the video directly relates to generally have the right to inspect the whole recording.

The Department worked through a real version of this in its 2017 Letter to Wachter, about a Pennsylvania district’s surveillance video of a hazing incident involving eight students. The district said it could not afford software to blur faces, and the Department’s view was that the video did not appear to be separable without destroying its meaning. So a parent of a disciplined student could watch it. The letter adds that if a portion of the video could fully show one student’s involvement, showing only that portion would be required.

The same letter says written witness statements follow the same logic. Parts about your child that cannot be separated from other students can be shown. The name of the student who wrote the statement is the kind of detail it says can be redacted.

Can I get a copy?

Generally not under FERPA. The Department’s FAQ says FERPA “does not generally require” a school to give parents copies, though handing one over would not break FERPA either.

There is one exception written into 34 CFR 99.10(d). If circumstances effectively prevent you from inspecting the record, the school must either give you a copy or make other arrangements. The Department’s example is a parent who lives outside commuting distance of the school.

State public records laws are a separate track. The Wachter request was made under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law, and the Department said any duty to hand over copies there would come from that state law rather than from FERPA. The Department does not advise on those laws, and neither can this page. If a copy matters, ask your district what your state’s law allows.

Does it cost anything?

34 CFR 99.11 says a school “may not charge a fee to search for or to retrieve the education records of a student.” The Department’s FAQ adds that the cost of redacting other students counts like search and retrieval, so it cannot be charged to you either.

A school may charge for a copy if it decides to make one. Under the same section, it may not charge where the fee would effectively stop you exercising your right to inspect and review.

Is there any video I cannot see this way?

Yes. Records created and kept by a school’s own law enforcement unit, for a law enforcement purpose, are not education records. That is set out in 34 CFR 99.8, which defines such a unit to include security guards the school has designated for that role. FERPA “neither requires nor prohibits” a school from disclosing those records.

The Department’s FAQ adds a detail that matters after a fight. If that unit passes a copy of the video to another part of the school, for example to keep with a disciplinary action, the copy may become an education record of the students involved. So the useful question is not only whether the video exists, but who is keeping it and in which file.

How do I ask?

In writing, and soon. The regulation gives the school up to 45 days, and 34 CFR 99.10(e) says a school shall not destroy an education record while a request to inspect it is outstanding. That protection only starts once you have asked, and nothing in it makes a school keep footage it never kept as a record. So the earlier the email, the better.

A request can be as plain as this:

I am asking to inspect and review any video recording, photograph, or witness statement that the school maintains about the incident on [date] involving my child, [name], including anything used in the disciplinary decision. Please tell me when I can come in to see it. If any part will be withheld or redacted, please tell me what and why.

If you are separated or divorced, 34 CFR 99.4 says either parent has full rights unless the school has been given a court order, state statute, or legally binding document that specifically revokes them.

Once your teenager turns 18, or starts attending a college at any age, FERPA treats them as an “eligible student” and the right becomes theirs.

The full list of what else to ask after a suspension is in questions to ask the school.

What if the school says no?

Ask for the refusal in writing, and ask which rule it is relying on. Three explanations are worth checking against the rules above: the video is held by the school’s law enforcement unit, the school says it was not used for discipline, or the school is offering to describe the clip rather than show it. The regulation does allow a school to “inform” you of a record’s contents in some cases, so a description is not automatically a violation.

If you still think the school is wrong, a parent can file a written complaint with the Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office through its complaint page. Under 34 CFR 99.64, a complaint is timely if it is filed within 180 days of the alleged violation, or of when you knew or reasonably should have known about it. The office may extend that for good cause.

If your teenager has an IEP, the special education law IDEA has privacy rules of its own, and the Department’s FAQ notes that they can raise different questions. Mention the IEP in the request.

What did this look like for one family?

Anselm is fifteen. He was given a two-day suspension after a fight by the lockers, and the letter home said the decision was based on “staff review of camera footage.” His mother wanted to know whether he had thrown the first punch, because he said he had not.

She emailed the assistant principal that evening and asked to inspect any video and witness statements used in the decision. The school offered a time the following week, showed her the clip in an office with the other boy’s face blurred, and declined to give her a copy. She watched it twice. It did not show what Anselm had said it showed, and that changed the conversation at home far more than it changed anything at school.

This example is illustrative rather than a real family. The point is the order: ask in writing, watch it, then decide what you think.

What this page cannot tell you

Federal law sets a floor for seeing a record. It does not decide whether the video changes the discipline, how long the school keeps footage, or whether your state’s public records law gives you a copy. Those are district and state questions.

This page is general information and not legal advice. If the video is likely to matter in a court case or a long exclusion, that is the point to speak to a lawyer licensed where you live.