FERPA Information

Why must I, as a member of the Dickinson College community, be concerned about FERPA?

Applies to all schools that receive federal funding under most programs administered by the Secretary of Education. Violation of FERPA can result in the loss of such funding.
Institutions may not disclose information in education records without a student's written consent, except as noted below. Institutions may release information from student records without prior consent:

To school officials (see definition)
To schools in which a student seeks or intends to enroll
To Federal, State, and local authorities involving an audit or evaluation of compliance
In connection with financial aid
To organizations conducting studies for or on behalf of educational institutions
To accrediting organizations
To parents of dependent students
To comply with judicial order or subpoena
When there is a health or safety emergency
Directory Information (see definition)
To the student

Definition of Terms

Student - anyone enrolled in a postsecondary institution
Educational Record - all records that

Contain information that is directly related to a student and
Are maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a party acting on behalf of the agency or institution
Information maintained in any way, including, but not limited to:

handwriting
computer media
print
video or audio tape
film
microfilm and microfiche

Exceptions to "education records" include

Sole Possession Records (see definition)
Employment Records
Law Enforcement Records (but not campus disciplinary proceedings)
Health Records
Alumni Records

Sole Possession Record - created solely by the maker with no assistance from anyone else and only revealed or made accessible to a temporary substitute
School Official - anyone employed by the college; a person or company with whom the college has contracted for services; member of the Board of Trustees; student serving on an official committee or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks
Legitimate Educational Interest - the records requested or accessed on line are relevant and necessary to accomplish some task or determination and the task or determination is an employment responsibility for the inquirer or is a properly assigned subject matter for the inquirer's responsibility as a school official
Directory Information - information which would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. Dickinson College has determined the following items to be "directory information"

Full name
Home address and telephone number
Date and place of birth
Campus address, local address, e-mail address and telephone number
Matriculated status (full-time, part-time, or non-matriculated) plus college major and class
Dates of college attendance
Most recent previous institution attended by student
Date of graduation, degree, and awards received
For athletic teams, height and weight of student
Participation in recognized student organizations and activities
Enrollment in foreign languages (without grades) may be made available to faculty teaching or supporting courses which have a foreign language integration option
Photograph or likeness

Main Points of FERPA for Advisors & Instructors

Any notes you make regarding a meeting with are considered education records (see definition) and are subject to review by the student. However, if you keep these notes as a sole possession record (see definition), they are not subject to FERPA and therefore not eligible for review by the student.
You may at times receive requests for information from the education record of a student:

Do not share student education records, including grades or grade point averages, with other faculty or staff members unless their official responsibilities identify their "legitimate educational interest" in that information for that particular student.
Do not share information from student education records, including grades or grade point averages, with parents or others outside the institutions, including in letters of recommendation, without written permission from the student.
If in doubt, always err on the side of caution and do not release the information. Contact the Registrar for guidance.

Do not discuss a student's academic performance, class schedule or class attendance with someone other than the student or someone with a legitimate educational interest (see definition).
Never leave protected information on student's voice-mail which may be accessed by others.
Never provide anyone with student schedules or assist anyone other than college employees in finding a student on campus.
You have the right to access your advisee's records in order to carry out this responsibility.
You may access records of other students not officially assigned to you as an advisee in order to carry out advising responsibilities
Students have a right to gain access to and challenge the content of their educational records. FERPA was not intended to provide a process to question substantive judgments that are correctly recorded. The rights of challenge are not intended to allow students to contest, for example, a grade in a course because they felt a higher grade should have been assigned.
Public posting of grades is a violation of FERPA, even if names are obscured. Numeric student id (and/or social security numbers) are considered confidential. If scores or grades are posted, use some code known only to you and the individual student. If a partial Social Security Number is used, use no more than the last five digits. In no case should the list be posted in alphabetic sequence by student name.
Do not put papers, graded exam books or lab reports containing student names and grades in publicly accessible places. Students are not to have access to the scores and grades of others in class in ways that allow other students to be identified.
Class rosters and other reports (including individual student schedules) should be handled in a confidential manner and the information contained on them should not be shared.
Never provide anyone with lists of students enrolled in your classes for any commercial purpose
Access to a student's record as an instructor may or may not fall under the category of legitimate education interest (see definition). Therefore, please contact the Registrar before accessing a student's record to avoid violation.

Main Points of FERPA for Students

You have the right to inspect and review your education record, subject only to reasonable restrictions as to time, place, and supervision

Students should submit to the registrar, written requests that identify the record(s) they wish to inspect. The registrar will make arrangements or access and notify the student of the time and place where the records may be inspected.

You have the right to limit release of the "Directory Information".

To do so, you must inform the Registrar within the first week of any fall semester, within one week of arrival as a new transfer student in any spring semester, or within two days of the start of any summer school session.

You have the right to challenge the content of your record. If you discover errors that you believe should be corrected, please inform the college official involved.

Students may ask the College to amend a record that they believe is inaccurate or misleading. They should write the College official responsible for the record, clearly identifying the part of the record they want changed, and specify why it is inaccurate or misleading.
If the College decides not to amend the record as requested by the student, the College will notify the student of the decision and advise the student of his or her right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to the student when notified of the right to a hearing.

You have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by Dickinson College to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the Office that administers FERPA is:

Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
600 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202-4605

What about parents?

When a student reaches the age of 18 or begins attending a post-secondary institutions regardless of age, FERPA rights transfer to the student.
Parents may obtain directory information at the discretion of the institution.
Parents may obtain non-directory information (this includes information related to academic performance) only at the discretion of the institution AND

after it has been determined that their child is legally their dependent as defined by Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. (NOTE: The payment of a student's tuition by the parent does not, by itself, give the parent the right of access to a student's record.) OR
by obtaining a signed consent form from their child.