FERPA HighlightsNew Faculty Orientation

August 2012

The Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act gives college students the right to:

• Have access to their educational records

• Seek to have the records amended

• Have some control over the disclosure of the records

What’s an educational record?

An educational record is any record that is directly related to a student and is maintained by the school.

A record is directly related to a student if it contains information which is either personally identifiable, or is easily traceable to the student.

A record is maintained by NOVA if it resides in the student information system or some other official repository.

When can a college disclose information from a student’s records without consent?

• Directory information• To a college official with a legitimate need for access• To the parent of a student under 21 who violates

drug/alcohol policy regardless of dependency• To another college which the student attends or

seeks to attend• If the student poses a threat to self or others• To the parents of a tax-dependent student of any

age

Threats to Self

Threats to Others

Parents

FERPA allows us to share information with the parents of tax-dependent

students.

2008 Virginia legislation requires us to do this.

So what information can, or

should, we share with parents?

TRUE OR FALSE?

FERPA applies to all information about our students.

FALSE

FERPA makes it virtually impossible to disclose anything to

anyone – even colleagues.

FALSE

It’s OK to disclose information about a student to a school she plans to

transfer to.

TRUE

The consequences of violating FERPA are devastating, so the safest

course is to disclose nothing.

FALSE

The students in my dual enrollment class aren’t 18, so it’s OK for me to talk

to their parents about their grades.

FALSE

CASE STUDIES

Talking with Parents

You receive a call from Dave and Kathy Smith, the parents of a former student. Their son Kevin was dismissed over a year ago. Dave and Kathy live in Florida and have been sending Kevin money to attend your college for every term during the last three years, including room and board and out-of-state tuition. They called to see how things are going since they don’t hear much from Kevin about school. How do you handle the conversation?

Answer

Prior consent is required to release anything but directory information, but NOVA considers enrollment information as directory information. Therefore, without saying that he had been dismissed, you could say that he had not been enrolled for the past year. Find out what they already know and then build from it. If appropriate, discuss the dependency exception for providing access to Kevin’s record.

Potentially Suicidal Student

Jacob’s behavior in class has changed. He seems withdrawn and listless. You talk to him after class and he confides that he doesn’t think his life is worth living and that he sometimes wants to end it all. He adds that he’s been seeing a therapist, but that it doesn’t seem to be helping. He has medication, but it makes him sleepy so he doesn’t take it. At the end of the conversation, he asks you not to tell anyone. What do you do?

Answer

FERPA allows you to communicate with anyone who may be helpful in a health and safety emergency. Is this an emergency? You don’t know, so err on the side of protecting Jacob. Tell someone, preferably the Dean of Students or the Coordinator of Counseling. File a concerning behavior report.

Posting Grades

John Faculty is tired of getting emails and phone calls from students to find out their grades after every test and he doesn’t want to use Blackboard, so he decides to post their grades on the wall outside his office door. Should he do this? If yes, are there any limitations to the manner in which he posts them?

Answer

Yes, the grades can be posted, but in such a way that they are personally identifiable only to each individual student and the instructor. For example, a code established at the beginning of the term could work. It is also not advisable to post information in the same order as the class roster.

Access by Divorced Parents

Frank’s parents are divorced. By agreement, his mother claims him as a dependent, but his father is required to pay his way through college. Frank and his mother have both refused to tell Frank’s father anything about his academic progress, so Franks’ father turns to the College for help. Can the institution give him the information?

Answer

The regulations allow release of information to either parent if the student is dependent on either one and there is no judicial exclusion. The institution will need to decide what we will accept from the father to validate the dependency status if we can’t get a copy of the actual tax documentation from the mother.