Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

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Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act(FERPA)

• Information for Student Employees of Union College

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Introduction

• A federal law, the Family Educational Rights and
  Privacy Act of 1974 as amended, affords students
  certain rights concerning their student
  educational records. The law is also know as
  FERPA and the Buckley Amendment.

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An important student right

• Students have a right to expect that information
  in their educational records will be kept
  confidential and disclosed only with their
  permission or under provisions of the law.

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• What information do you have access to or can you
  see which may need to be handled in a
  confidential manner?
• What kind of telephone calls may you receive
  which may need to be handled in a secure way?

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What are Educational Records?

• The law defines them as Records, files,
  documents, and other materials that contain
  information directly related to a student and
  maintained by the University or someone acting
  for the University according to policy.

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What information can be released to the public
without student permission?

• FERPA identifies a category of information as
  directory information, which institutions may
  release to a third party without student
  permission except in certain conditions specified
  by the regulations.

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Responsibility..

• It is the responsibility of the institution to
  ensure that information is not improperly
  disclosed to any third party without the
  students written consent.

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Directory Information atUNIION COLLEGE

• Student name
• Student home address
• Student local address
• Student e-mail
• Telephone numbers
• Student birthday (month and day)
• Class level and major field of study
• Dates of attendance at Union College

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Directory Information at Union College (cont.)

• Degrees and awards received at Union College
• Academic recognition
• Photograph
• Institutions attended prior to admission to Union
  College
• Participation in recognized activities and sports
  at Union College

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Students have the right to prevent the release of
directory information

• A student may formally request the college
  Director of Records to prevent disclosure of
  directory information, except to school officials
  with legitimate educational interests and certain
  others as specified in the regulations.
• Once filed, this request becomes a permanent part
  of the students record until the student
  instructs the college, in writing, to have the
  restriction removed.

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Questions about students with FERPA Restrictions

• The proper response to a question (such as
  whether they graduated from the college) about
  such a student is, We have no information about
  that individual.

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Can UC faculty and staff see student information
without the students permission?

• The regulations allow access to student
  information by school officials with legitimate
  educational interests.
• School officials include people employed by the
  University in administrative, supervisory,
  academic or research, or support staff positions,
  including student employees.

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Legitimate Educational Interest

• A school official has a legitimate educational
  interest if the official needs to review an
  educational record in order to do his or her job.

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Some exceptions do exist

• The regulations do allow for some exceptions,
  such as in a health or safety emergency. These
  situations should be referred to your supervisor
  for action or clarification.

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Information may be released to the student

• It is ok to release information about a student
  record directly to the student. However
• You need to make sure that it is the student.
• Ask for an ID if possible.
• If thats not possible, ask for a combination of
  other identifying information such as last four
  digits of the Social Security Number, ID, date of
  birth, home address, etc.

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What about releasing information to parents?

• Once a student enrolls in the college the rights
  related to the educational records belongs to the
  student, not to the parents, even if the parents
  are paying the bills.

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Online FERPA Waiver

• Unless a student has notified the Director of
  Records to restrict information for release
• the only information that can be released to
  parents without the students written permission
  is Directory Information.

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Curiosity

• DO NOT access student records out of curiosity or
  ones that you do not need to see to do your job.

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Sharing with friends

• DO NOT share student educational record
  information that you see as part of your job,
  including grades or grade point averages, with
  others.

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When in doubt

• WHEN IN DOUBT, err on the side of caution and do
  not release student educational information. If
  you have questions or are uncertain, speak with
  your supervisor for guidance.

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• NEVER leave your computer screen unattended with
  student information displayed!

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• Your computer screen should never face the public!

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Questions???

• Please feel free to refer general questions about
  FERPA at Union College to a full-time staff
  member or to the Records Office.