10 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
The Registrar’s Office Responsibilities include: Student Services, Academic Records, and Registration
- Majors & minors changes
- Enrollment & degree verifications
- Student data changes (names, etc.)
- Course registration assistance
- Transcript services
- Athletic eligibility certification
- FERPA compliance oversight
What is FERPA?
- Family Education Rights and Privacy Act
- Law passed by Congress in 1974 to protect privacy of educational records
- Primary institutions (K-12) – Rights given to parents or guardians
- Post-secondary institutions – Rights transferred from parents/guardians to students
Student Rights under FERPA
FERPA grants students four basic rights:
- The RIGHT to review their educational records;
- The RIGHT to request amendments of inaccurate or misleading information within their educational record;
- The RIGHT to control disclosure of information within their educational record;
- The RIGHT to file a complaint regarding non-compliance of FERPA with the Family Policy Compliance Office.
Educational Records protected by FERPA
- Academic Information
- Grades, class schedule, academic progress, transcripts
- Financial Records
- Awards, disbursements, billing, payments
- Other biographical data including disciplinary records, SSN, ethnicity, race & religious affiliation
University Records Not Protected
- University law enforcement records
- Medical and mental health records 16
- “Sole possession” records not shared with others
- Personal observations
- Peer graded papers/exams prior to grade being recorded in instructor’s grade book
- Alumni records
Directory Information
FERPA allows disclosure without student consent
- AUM Directory Information includes:
- o Student’s name, address, phone, email
- o Date of birth
- o Program of study, attendance dates, enrollment status
- o Degrees, honors, awards received
- o Certain information on athletes
- AUM takes a conservative stand on releasing student data
Blocking Disclosure of Directory Information
- Students can block disclosure of Directory information
- o Cannot acknowledge student attends our university
- o Cannot provide enrollment or degree verifications to third parties (loan companies, potential employers)
- o Few students opt out due to limitations
Student Consent From
- Student completes ‘Consent for Access’ form in Registrar’s Office
- Student can cancel or change the date at any time
- In person for student’s protection
Exceptions
- Records may be released in cases of:
- o A health or safety emergency to student or others
- o Violation of university’s drug or alcohol policy
- o A court order
Registrar’s Office Taylor Center
334-244-3125
8:00 am – 5:00 pm Monday – Friday
FERPA Scenarios
You receive a phone call from the local police department asking if you can verify that one of your students was scheduled for a class on a specific date and time. The police officer indicates he is involved in an investigation concerning the student. Are you permitted to provide the requested information?
Answer: No, not without a subpoena or official court order. Any subpoenas or court orders should be brought to the Registrar’s Office for processing.
You receive a call from AUM campus police to get the address and class schedule of a student. You are informed that he has a warrant for the student’s arrest. Can you provide the requested information?
Answer: FERPA considers campus security officials as employees with a “legitimate educational interest” if they are designated as “university officials” and operating within the scope of their employment. The warrant would not be necessary. Such requests should be forwarded to the Registrar’s Office for processing.
You receive a frantic phone call from someone stating to be a student’s mother who must get in touch with her daughter immediately due to a family emergency. Can you provide information pertaining to the student’s class schedule?
Answer: No. You can offer to send someone to the student’s class to ask her to call home. You can contact Campus Police or Student Affairs to locate the student if necessary.
You receive a call from someone indicating they are performing a background check on a student in preparation for a job offer. The student has not provided written consent to release educational information. How can you respond?
Answer: Unless the student has placed a confidentiality flag on his/her record, you can provide directory information (including major, degree and awards received). You can also provide personal observations you have of the student. However, without written consent from the student, you cannot relay any other information from the educational record, including grades, GPA, etc.
A parent calls to talk about why her son received a poor grade in your class. Can you talk with her?
Answer: Unless the student has given written consent allowing his mother access to his records you cannot discuss specifics of her son’s situation. You can, however, discuss your grading philosophy in general terms, as presented on the course syllabus.
A student asks you to write a letter of recommendation for a job application. She provides you with a copy of her resume that indicates her GPA. May you include in the letter the GPA and grades she received in your class?
Answer: No. Without the student giving written consent, you may not disclose non-directory information from her educational record. FERPA requires explicit (not implied) consent.
You teach a class that has a Web-based discussion component. Class members can see each other’s email address and name. It is open to the public for view or use. Are there any FERPA issues?
Answer: No. Since the discussion is only accessible to students in the class, there is no
FERPA violation. However, non-directory information should not be displayed on the site. The 2009 FERPA regulations specifically state that student usernames can be displayed to others in a class even if the student in question has chosen “no release” for their directory information.
Are comment and notes related to a discussion you had with a student considered part of the educational record?
Answer: It depends. If the comments and notes are recorded in BANNER or kept in a file that is accessible to even one other person, they are considered an educational record and subject to FERPA protection. If the comments and notes are kept simply as “memory joggers” and not shared with even one other person, they are considered “sole possession” documents and not part of the educational record. Since FERPA grants students the right to review and access their records, the notes that do not meet the “sole possession” criteria should be included in that review. Therefore, it is important that all written comments or notes be factual and objective and devoid of inappropriate value judgments or language.