FERPA Friday April 7th, 2023

What is FERPA Friday?

FERPA Friday will be a new installation that will cover FERPA related topics to help faculty, staff and students better understand the rules and regulations. There will also be a question-and-answer section that pertains to that week’s topic, along with a real-life example to help with context. If you have any suggestions of topics that you would like to have covered, please email ferpa@wm.edu.

What is a “Legitimate Educational Interest”?

A legitimate educational interest is when a school official needs to review a student’s education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibilities.

A School Official is classified as:

Person employed by the university in an administrative, supervisory, academic, research or support staff position.
Person serving on the board of visitors
Student serving on an official committee, such as Honor Council
Volunteer or contractor outside of the university who performs an institutional service or function (i.e. attorney or auditor)

Examples of legitimate educational interest:

Grading in the course
Reviewing a course roster
Evaluating an advisee’s upcoming schedule with that advisee

Legitimate educational interest does not include:

Checking other faculty members’ rosters
Viewing a student’s previous courses and schools without an approved reason
Researching a student’s GPA without an approved reason
Sharing a student’s academic history with a search committee
Looking up a student’s schedule without an approved reason
Reviewing admissions files for students admitted into a program

If you have to review a student’s education record and are unsure if it is for a legitimate educational reason, please reach out to the University Registrar Office at ferpa@wm.edu.

Faculty

Faculty may only view a student’s education record to fulfill their professional responsibilities for the university. This is referred to as a “legitimate educational interest”. Faculty are not permitted to view a student’s education record without legitimate educational interest. Curiosity is never a legitimate educational interest!

Families

According to FERPA guidelines families are considered a “third party” and do not have a right to access a student’s information and education records, regardless of the student’s age. Faculty may not discuss attendance, class participation, grades, or any other specific aspect of a student’s education record with families.

Other Permitted Access

An outside party that has the student’s written consent on file.
A person in response to a lawfully issued subpoena or court order. (Contact university counsel if you receive a subpoena or court order)
In certain cases, parents of a dependent student, as defined by the IRS code, who have claimed the student as a dependent on their most recent tax forms.

Case Student 1

You work in the Financial Aid Office and are talking with a member of a Richmond, VA based alumni group. They are establishing a new scholarship for students from Richmond. A scholarship committee from the alumni group will evaluate and award applications. The alumnus asks you for the names, addresses and GPAs for all currently enrolled students from Richmond. What should you give them?

Since the alumni are not W&M employees with a legitimate educational interest, you cannot provide them with personally identifiable information from education records. With appropriate approvals from the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and the University Registrar's office, you may be permitted to release directory information and if students applying for financial aid have given written permission to release their information to third parties for financial aid opportunities, you may release that. However, this is against best practices, even if permitted by FERPA. The most appropriate action is to provide the alumni group's scholarship information to students and let the interested students contact the group.

Case Study 2

An instructor wants to make their online course management (i.e. Blackboard) pages publicly accessible to anyone. Are there FERPA implications for making this information available to individuals beyond the course?

Yes. Specific course registration and personally identifiable class materials from students are not directory information. Therefore, they should not be publicly accessible. Additionally, there may be students in the course who have chosen “no release” for their directory information; displaying their information effectively disregards this request. The instructor can offer a voluntary “public” version of her course but cannot compel students to participate.

True/False Question

Faculty have a right to inspect education records of any William & Mary student.

False. Faculty may view education records to service their advisees and students enrolled in their courses. Otherwise, faculty must provide a valid reason (legitimate educational interest) before viewing a student's education record.

If you have any questions regarding a FERPA related matter, or suggestions that you would like to see on a future FERPA Friday please email ferpa@wm.edu.