FERPA

Review the following information:

• Student educational records are considered confidential and may not be released without the written consent of the student.
• As a faculty or staff member, you have a responsibility to protect educational records in your possession.
• Some information is considered public (sometimes called “directory information”); this info can be released without the student’s written permission; however, the student may opt to consider this info confidential as well; directory information is a student’s name, class standing, school/division, major field of study, dates of attendance, degrees and awards, recognized student activities, sports, athletics information, and current enrollment status; a student’s address and telephone number are also public information unless they have filed a form with the registrar to keep these private.
• You have access to information only for legitimate use in completion of your responsibilities as a university employee; “need to know” is the basic principle.
• If you are ever in doubt, do not release any information until you contact the Office of the Registrar at [email protected] or 260-481-6815; the Office of the Registrar is responsible for student record information.
   

Before completing your FERPA certification, please review the designated training materials here.

On the Brightspace landing page, PFW user’s need to click on PWL’s instance of Brightspace to complete their FERPA certification.

Once registered, you will receive an e-mail confirmation from [email protected] with a link to D2L Brightspace (https://purdue.brightspace.com). Log in to D2L Brightspace using your Purdue Career Account.

Institutions may disclose the following information on a student without violating FERPA if the student has not restricted their information:

• name
• e-mail address
• address (local & home)
• telephone number (local & home)
• college/school and curriculum
• enrollment status and credit hour load
• dates of attendance
• classification
• receipt or non-receipt of a degree
• academic awards received (dean's list, honors students)
• participation in officially recognized activities
• sports photograph
• position, weight, and height of athletes

An education record is any record that is directly related to a student and maintained by the university. A student has the right of access to these records.

Education records include any records in whatever medium (handwritten, email, print, magnetic tape, film, diskette, etc.) that is in the possession of any school official. This includes transcripts or other records obtained from a school in which a student was previously enrolled.

What aren't education records?

• sole possession records or private notes held by school officials that are not accessible or released to other personnel,
• law enforcement or campus security records that are solely for law enforcement purposes and maintained solely by the law enforcement unit,
• records relating solely to an individual's employment by the institution that are not available for any other purpose,
• records relating to treatment provided by a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist or other recognized professional or paraprofessional and disclosed only to individuals providing treatment,
• records of an institution that contain only information about an individual obtained after that person is no longer a student, i.e., alumni records,
• grades on peer-graded papers that have not been collected and recorded.

All students have the right to control to whom their education record is released. There are several exceptions to when that permission is not required. In order to release their education record, a student must provide a signed and dated written consent specifically stating what records are to be released, the purpose of the disclosure, and the party to whom the disclosure is being made. Regulations provide flexibility for utilizing electronic signatures.

There are exceptions to the consent to disclosure requirement. Please see the following web site for further details.

When is prior consent not required?
The institution may release records without consent, but is not required to do so. Some examples of the exceptions for having a release include, but are not limited to, the following:

• School officials with a legitimate educational interest;
• Disclosure to another institution where student seeks to enroll or is enrolled;
• Disclosure to the Department of Education, state/local education authorities;
• Disclosure in connection with the receipt of financial aid (validating eligibility), including veteran’s benefits;
• Disclosure to state/local officials in conjunction with legislative requirements;
• Disclosure to organizations conducting studies to improve instruction, or to accrediting organizations;
• Disclosure to parents of dependent students (IRS definition);
• To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
• Disclosure for a health/safety emergency;
• Disclosure of directory information;
• Disciplinary information (Warner Amendment):
• Disclosure to the alleged victim, information from disciplinary proceedings;
  Only when found in violation, and only for crimes of violence—release of name, sanction and outcome (public information); and
• Disclosure to parents of any student under the age of 21, a violation of federal, state, local or institutional laws/regulations related to substance abuse (Foley Amendment).

FERPA rights (and the right to privacy) end at death, unless otherwise specified by state law. Students have a formal right to file a complaint with the Department of Education.

Personally identifiable information includes, but is not limited to:

• student name
• name of student's parent or other family member
• address of the student or the student's family
• a personal identifier (PUID, SID, SSN)
• biometric record
• other indirect indicators (birth date, place of birth, mother's maiden name)
• other information alone or in combination that would make the student's identity easily traceable

Students have the right to see everything in their education record except the following:

• Information about other students
• Financial records of their parents/guardians
• Confidential letters of recommendation if they have waived their right of access. (Requiring a waiver of access is not allowed.)

There is not a records retention policy under FERPA. FERPA regulations do not state what records you must create or retain or how long you must keep them. Those are institutional decisions. You cannot destroy records once they are requested.

The public posting of grades, either by the student’s name, institutional student identification number, or social security number is a violation of FERPA. Using an assigned random number that only the student and instructor know would be an appropriate way to post grades. Even then, the order of posting should not be alphabetic.

Statements made by a person providing a recommendation that derive from that person's own observation or knowledge do not require a written release from the student who is the subject of the recommendation. However, if personally identifiable information obtained from a student's education record is included in a letter of recommendation (grades, GPA, etc.), the writer is required to obtain a signed release from the student which:

1. specifies the records that may be disclosed,
2. states the purpose of the disclosure, and
3. identifies the party or class of parties to whom the disclosure can be made.

Since the letter of recommendation would be part of the student's education record, the student has the right to read it – unless the student has waived that right of access.

To avoid violating FERPA rules, do not do any of the following:

• Use a part of or the entire student identification number or Social Security number of a student in a public posting of grades;
• Link the name of a student with that student’s identification number or Social Security number in any public manner;
• Leave graded tests in a stack for students to pick up by sorting through the papers of all students;
• Circulate a printed class list with student name and student identification number, or Social Security number or grades, as an attendance roster;
• Discuss the progress of a student with anyone other than the student (including parents) without the consent of the student;
• Provide anyone with lists of students enrolled in your classes for any commercial purpose; or
• Provide anyone with student schedules or assist anyone other than university employees in finding a student on campus.

The student has the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.  This complaint may result in the filing of civil litigation and/or the loss of federal funding for financial aid and educational grants for Purdue University. Action to terminate funding is generally taken only if compliance cannot be secured by voluntary means.

Sources of Additional FERPA Information

• Purdue FERPA Policy: http://www.purdue.edu/policies/records/viiia4.html
• FERPA Training

Call 260-481-6815 or email [email protected] for FERPA assistance.