FERPA Friday May 5th, 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.

FERPA Overview

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a federal law that affords students certain rights with respect to their education records and defines situations in which the university may release information from student records with student consent. These rights transfer from the parents to the student when either the student turns eighteen years old or enters a postsecondary educational institution, regardless of age.

FERPA Reminders

What is a “Legitimate Educational Interest”?

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

School Official

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)

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

Families are considered a "third party" and do not have a right to student information and education records, regardless of the student's age.

Protecting Education Records

Your Responsibilities

As a school official, you have a legal responsibility to protect the confidentiality of education records.

Do Not...

Do not permit inspection of a student's education record.
Do not disclose personally identifiable information about a student.
Do not save education records to a private device.

Do...

Only access what you need to know. Curiosity is not a need to know!
Use university devices and the university network to access education records. Avoid using unsecured WiFi.
Secure your desk, cabinets, office and lock your desktop, laptop and portable device screens when not in use.

Disclosing Student's Exam Grades

Do…

Pass out exams/test themselves to students individually, or leave exams/tests with a teaching assistant to give out to the student’s individually.
Use Blackboard/Banner to post grades to student’s individual profile which provide built-in security tools to protect student education records.
Contact the University Registrar’s Office if you have any questions about posting grades for students throughout the semester.

Do Not…

Do not use the University ID number of a student in a public posting of grades or any other information.
Do not link the name of a student with that student’s University ID number in any public manner.
Do not leave graded materials for students to pick up in a stack that requires sorting through the papers of other students.
Do not hand graded information back to the group once it has been graded if it is a group grading situation.
Do not share the progress of a student with anyone other than the student without the student’s written consent.
Do not include student’s grades, GPA, classes, etc. in a letter of recommendation without written consent of the student.

What to do if you or someone else has inadvertently disclosed a student’s education records?

If a student files a complaint citing FERPA infractions, or if an administrator or faculty member realizes they have disclosed a student’s information improperly please contact the Office of the University Registrar so they may be aware of the situation and involve the necessary legal personnel depending on the severity of the circumstances.
In the case of a compliant or inadvertently disclosed information, please reach out to the parties who received said information and ask them to destroy/delete and not share any documents that they may have received in error.
If the Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) is involved, the institution will have to show steps taken to remedy the infraction and put better practices into motion (i.e. updating policies & procedures) to make sure it does not happen in the future.

Question/Answer

Question 1:

A student’s parent calls to talk about why the student received a poor grade in your class. Can you talk with the parent and discuss specifics of the student’s situation?

Unless the student has given written consent allowing the parent access to the student’s education records you cannot discuss specifics of the student’s situation. You can, however, discuss your grading philosophy in general terms, as presented on the course syllabus.

Question 2:

Grades may be posted for students if only the last 4 numbers of the social security number or W&M ID number are used as identification of the students.

Posting any exam, midterm, or final grade for public viewing where the name or any portion of the social security number or W&M ID number of the student is shown is a violation of FERPA.

Question 3:

Is it permissible for a faculty member to include a student's grades and GPA in a letter of recommendation without obtaining the student's permission since the student requested the faculty member to write the recommendation and provided a copy of her resume with the requested information to the faculty member.

FALSE. The faculty member should always obtain the consent of the student before disclosing any portion of student’s education records.

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.