FERPA Highlights for
Faculty
Dr. Beth Harper
Associate Vice President
Student Services & Enrollment Management
The Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act
gives college students access to their
educational records and gives them the right to:
• 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?
Can an instructor share class
attendance information
during the semester with a
parent via email if the parent
requests this? In other
words, is class attendance a
part of a student's
educational record?
NO. Class attendance is not considered an
educational record as long as it’s
maintained as part of an instructor’s
personal notes. Enrollment information by
semester/term can be released.
Can an instructor share
assignment grades during
the semester with a parent
via email if the parent
requests this? Are
individual assignment
grades a part of a
student's educational
record?
NO. The official repository for student
records that are maintained by the
college is SIS. Only final course grades
are maintained in SIS.
What about dual
enrollment
students?
Dual enrollment
students are treated
just like any other
students. However,
we can share
information with the
student’s high
school. The HS can
then share with the
parents.
TRUE OR FALSE?
FERPA applies to all information about
our students.
FERPA makes it virtually
impossible to disclose anything to
anyone – even colleagues.
It’s OK to disclose information about
a student to a school she plans to
transfer to.
The consequences of violating
FERPA are devastating, so the safest
course is to disclose nothing.
The students in my dual enrollment
class aren’t 18, so it’s OK for me to talk
to their parents about their grades.
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 Frank’s father turns to the College
for help. Can the institution give him the
information?
Answer
The regulations allow release of information to
both parents 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.