Richard Rainsberger is a Consultant in Educational Records Privacy and the Family Educational Records and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). He has been a professional college records administrator for 33 years at Central Virginia Community College, Franklin University, Governors State University, Central College, and Carnegie Mellon. During 26 of those years, Dr. Rainsberger has had direct responsibility for administering institutional FERPA policy. Since 1986, he has conducted FERPA workshops at the annual meeting of AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) and for the faculty and staff of more than 20 colleges and universities. He has also presented papers or workshops on FERPA for the American Council on Education (ACE), National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), and state governmental representatives of Kentucky and Illinois.

In 1990, he was appointed chair of the AACRAO committee to revise the AACRAO FERPA Guide. Those efforts have resulted in the widely-acclaimed FERPA Guides of 1995, 1998, and 2001.

In 1997, he also published the AACRAO FERPA Guide for Secondary Education. His other current pursuits are evaluating states' open records laws in relation to FERPA, the recently passed federal legislation on digital signatures, the impact of high technology initiatives on FERPA, and outsourcing.