FERPA Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act

1. FERPAFamily Educational Rights& Privacy Act Southwestern Oregon Community College Contact Shawn Liggett at the Student First Stop Center for questions or comments Southwestern Oregon Community College is an Equal Opportunity Educator & Employer

2. F E R P A • What Is FERPA? Who Is Protected? • Educational Records • Directory Information • Personally Identifiable Information • Disclosure Of Education Records • Who Is Entitled To Student Information • Ten Most Important Things To Remember • Case Scenarios

3. What Is FERPA? Who Is Protected? • The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 • Helps protect the privacy of student records • Applies to all institutions federally funded • Students who are currently enrolled • Students who were formerly enrolled • Regardless of their age or status or regarding parental dependency

4. Educational Records • Students have the right to access their records and have those records remain confidential • Which are directly related to them • Which are maintained by an educational institution • Which are maintained by parties authorized to keep records for the institution

5. Directory Information • Directory information may be disclosed by Southwestern employees without violating FERPA • Students may choose to restrict directory information by completing the proper form

6. Personally Identifiable Information • This information is confidential • Personal identifier (SSN or student #) • Counseling and advising records • Disciplinary records • Financial aid records • Transcripts and other academic records • List of personal characteristics • Billing and fee payment records • Student’s class schedule • Name of student’s parent/family member • Address of student’s family

7. Disclosure of Student Records • Students may prohibit the release of any or all directory information • Directory information and other personally identifiable information may be released to comply with judicial order to lawfully issued subpoena • Requests to disclose should always be handled with caution and approached on a case to case basis

8. Who Is Entitled To Student Information • The student and any outside party who has the student’s consent • School officials with “legitimate educational interest” as defined in FERPA • A lawfully issued judicial order or subpoena which allows the institution to release records

9. Top Ten Most Important NUMBER 10 • Affords certain rights to students concerning their educational records. • Right to inspect and review records • Right to seek to have records amended • Right to have some control over the disclosure of information

10. NUMBER 9 • Where can I find Southwestern’s FERPA information? • www.socc.edu • Go to Faculty & Staff, Intranet, then Policies Procedures - FERPA • Student First Stop Center • Schedules printed each term • Southwestern catalog Where can I find online FERPA regulations? http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/index.html

11. NUMBER 8 • Grades may not be posted so that the students are personally identifiable • Any part of the SSN and the student ID are personally identifiable • Why? Disclosing personally identifiable information requires a student written consent

12. NUMBER 7 • Who is a school official? • One who acts in the student’s educational interest within limits • faculty • administrators • classified employees • part time employees

13. NUMBER 6 • Directory information • Student’s full name • Student’s who are enrolled or have been enrolled • Local and permanent addresses and phone numbers • Photograph • Date and place of birth • Participation in official recognized activities and sports • Dates of attendance

14. NUMBER 5 • Student’s may request to restrict or release information • The Restrict or Release Form is located at the Student First Stop Center

15. NUMBER 4 • Special Don’ts for Faculty • Do not use social security numbers • Do not allow students to sift through other student’s papers or distribute graded exams for others to see • Do not leave printed class lists where others may see them • Do not provide lists for commercial purposes • Do not locate students on campus for anyone but college employees

16. NUMBER 3 • Employee Responsibility • All employees are responsible for protecting educational records • Do not allow students to record another students identification number • If you provide information to someone the student has authorized, you must document the date and what was released

17. NUMBER 2 • Employees are not authorized to access any other employee or student information outside the scope of their job duties • This includes your own spouse or child • Your friends, neighbors or partner • DO NOT pressure or ask other employees to reveal student record information

18. NUMBER 1 When in doubt don’t give it out ! ! !

19. Case Scenarios • A wife comes into a registrar’s office to request a copy of her husbands transcript. She does not want an official copy of his transcript, just a printout of his grades. She indicated her husband said it would be okay. She completed a transcript release form and submits it to the office. • Is this ok? No, a transcript is a student record. The husband must request the information himself or personally submit a signed release authorizing the wife to access his records.

20. Case Scenarios • A history faculty member requests a student’s transcript to assist him in writing a recommendation. Can he receive a copy of the record? • What would you say? No, in this case reviewing the transcript is not a legitimate educational interest.

21. Case Scenarios • You receive a phone call from a person stating that he desperately needs to know what his fall grades are. • What do you do? Have the student access WebAdvisor. Or confirm it is the student on the phone by a variety of personal questions – age, past classes attended, prior grades, names of instructors…

22. Questions?