FERPA

1
FERPA

• The Buckley Amendment

2
What is FERPA?

• Family
• Educational
• Rights and
• Privacy
• Act

3
What is FERPA?

• Comprehensively regulates student records
• Applicable to both public and private schools
• Affects elementary, secondary, and higher
  education
• Compliance is a condition of receiving federal
  funds
• Provides rights to parents of minor pre-college
  students, adults, and college students
• Provides notification to parents and students
  annually of their rights

4
What Rights?

• Access to school records
• Confidentiality of records
• Opportunity to challenge accuracy

5
What are School Records?

• FERPA deals specifically with the education
  records of students. Education records are
• 1) directly related to a student
• 2) maintained by an institution or a party
  acting for the institution
• 3) can be in any media handwritten,
  print, type, film, computer screen, etc.

6
What are Education Records?

• Education Records are Not
• 1) sole possession records (personal notes
  which are not shared with others)
• 2) law enforcement unit records
• 3) employment records
• 4) medical records
• 5) post-attendance records

7
What do you think?

• Joe Student is assigned to Annie Advisor. At one
  point during the year, he asks if he may view his
  education record, including everything Annie has
  written about him. He is concerned about what
  personal information Annie has included. Does
  FERPA allow access to all of his records? If
  not, can he still see his record? A year later,
  Joe is assigned to Bill Advisor who inherited
  Joe (and his record) from Annie. If Joe asks to
  see his record again, would there be any
  limitation?

8
What do you think - Resolution

• As a general rule, Joe has access to all
  personally identifiable information that a school
  official of an institution maintains on him
  unless that information is not subject to FERPA.
  This does not appear to be the case here. Even
  advisors notes are education records since they
  were made in conjunction with another person (the
  student). Therefore, they are not sole
  possession notes.

9
What does Sole Possession Mean?

• What is an example of a sole possession note?
  Lets say that Annie has Joe in one of her
  classes. She writes a note about his behavior in
  class and places the note in her personal Joe
  folder that only she (or a temporary substitute)
  has access to. That note, since it was made as a
  memory aid and is accessible only to herself
  and a temporary substitute in a file that only
  they have access to, is an example of a sole
  possession note.

10
What about confidentiality?

• Information contained in an education record that
  generally would not be considered harmful or an
  invasion of privacy if disclosed is called
  Directory Information.

11
Directory Information

• Directory Information at Muhlenberg includes the
  following
• Name, address, telephone number, e-mail address
• Date of birth
• Class year
• Participation in officially recognized activities
  and sports
• Weight and heights of members of athletic teams
• Major field of study, dates of attendance
• Degrees and/or awards received

12
Directory Information

• Directory Information can NEVER be a students
• Social security number
• Berg ID
• Citizenship
• Gender
• Religious preference
• Grades
• GPA

13
Public Notice

• FERPA requires institutions to give public notice
  to students of the categories of personally
  identifiable information which the institution
  has designated as directory information.
• Students must be given a specific period of time
  within which they must inform institutions, in
  writing, that directory information is to be
  withheld.

14
What do you think?

• Every semester the registrar prints a list of
  students who have made Deans List and forwards
  it to the academic dean. Only one copy is
  printed, and the dean is the only one who
  receives it.
• Would the dean be allowed to publish all the
  names in the local newspaper if there is no
  written permission from the students to do so?

15
What do you think - Resolution

• The Institutional FERPA policy identifies what
  items of information the institution considers
  directory information. The institution would
  have to include it in its list of items
  considered directory information. If the
  institution does not identify awards received
  (in this case, honors) as directory information,
  the institution would have to obtain each
  students written permission before releasing the
  information to the media.

16
What about Parents?

• Parents have access to student records if their
  child is under the age of 18 and not attending a
  postsecondary institution.
• Parents of children 18 or over and/or attending a
  postsecondary institution
• may obtain directory information
• may obtain non-directory information only at
  the discretion of the institution and after it
  has been determined that their child is legally
  dependent (usually requires an Income Tax Form).
• may obtain non-directory information by
  obtaining a signed consent from their child.

17
What do you think?

• Mary Student is a junior in high school,
  seventeen years old, and decides to take
  advantage of the joint high school/college
  enrollment option. She is using the coursework
  for both high school and college credit. Should
  the university release grade information to
  Marys parents?

18
What do you think Resolution

• FERPA is clear that a student has rights to her
  education records once she begins attending an
  institution of higher education, regardless of
  her age. Therefore, the parents should be
  treated like any other parents of a typical
  college student. You may release non-directory
  information to parents by either obtaining the
  students written permission or by having the
  parents show that their child is legally their
  dependent.

19
What about professors and confidentiality?

• Legitimate Educational Interest
• FERPA allows institutions to define. A common
  definition is as follows
• The demonstrated need to know by those officials
  of an institution who act in the students
  educational interest, including faculty,
  administration, clerical and professional
  employees, and other persons, including student
  employees or agents, who manage student record
  information.

20
What do you think?

• While you are strolling around campus at the end
  of the semester, after grades are processed, you
  come across a group of graded term papers on the
  table outside of one faculty members office.
  The departmental secretary was told by the
  faculty member before he left for his annual
  holiday cruise in the Caribbean that some
  students may come by to pick up their term
  papers. He told the secretary where they were
  located and went on his way. Is this a FERPA
  violation?

21
What do you think - Resolution

• Leaving personally identifiable, graded papers
  unattended for students to pick through is no
  different from posting grades in the hallway. If
  these papers contain personally identifiable
  information, then leaving them unattended for
  anyone to see is a violation of FERPA if the
  instructor has not obtained the written
  permission of each student to do so.

22
What about records that are wrong?

• Students have the right to request amendment of
  records they consider to be wrong. Institutions
  are not required to change the record, but there
  must be a hearing. If a record is not changed, a
  student may include in the record a statement
  explaining the situation.

23
Why should we comply with FERPA?

• Its the Law!
• FERPA legislation has the power to revoke federal
  funds to schools for proven FERPA violations.

24
Do you know what to do?

• Educational records are all around us. Each of
  us needs to do his/her part to keep this
  information secure and protect students rights.
• If there is any question in your mind regarding
  any request for education record information, it
  is always better to err on the conservative side
  and ask for guidance.

25
Ask someone

• Office of the Registrar
• [phone]
• Family Policy Compliance Office
• www.ed.gov/offices/OM/fpco