Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
Information and Frequently Asked Questions
Overview
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, commonly known as
FERPA, is a federal law that governs educational records. It grants
specific rights to students and regulates how institutions must handle
educational records, including grades. FERPA gives students rights to
see their records and protects against disclosures of certain
information without the student’s consent or specific legal
authorization.
Frequently Asked Questions about FERPA
How does FERPA affect faculty and other course instructors?
FERPA affects your actions as an instructor in three main areas: your
capacity to discuss a student’s performance with a parent or guardian;
the conditions under which you may provide references that discuss a
student’s performance; and your actions in posting grades and returning
graded work to students.
What do I do when a parent or guardian calls to find out how a
student is doing in my class?
Refer the calls to the Office of the Dean of Students (333-0050) where
staff will obtain or confirm the required documentation (e.g., that the
student has given consent to the disclosure or that the student is the
parent’s legal dependent), and then assist the parent. You may not
discuss a student’s performance in your class with the student’s parent
unless you have written permission from the student.
If I receive a request for information about a student from a
prospective employer or faculty or staff in a program to which the
student has applied for admission, are there restrictions on what I can
say?
You may not provide a verbal or written reference for a student that
discusses the student’s educational performance unless you have written
permission from the student. You can find a sample form for the student
to sign at:
http://www.oar.uiuc.edu/current/pdf/Release_Info.pdf
And what about posting grades?
You cannot post grades by class roster, even with the names blanked out,
or leave papers/tests in a box for students to collect. If you comply
with the following guidelines, you may post grades without compromising
a student’s privacy rights or violating the law:
1. Do ask each student to give you a unique number known only to you and
that student.
2. Do sort your list in numerical order.
3. Do not display student scores or grades publicly in association with
names, Social Security Numbers, or other personal identifiers.
4. Do not post a copy of your class roster or Final Grade Collection
List, even with the names removed. These lists are in alphabetical
order, and viewers of the list may be able to infer students’
identities.
5. Do not put papers or lab reports containing student names and grades
in publicly accessible places. In particular, do not put papers into a
common box where students must go through everyone else’s papers to find
their own. Do not pass back papers by circulating an entire set for
individuals to pull out their own. No one should have access to the
scores or grades of others in the class.
Note: At the instructor’s discretion, students may request a personal
notification of a final grade by providing a stamped self-addressed
envelope or asking the instructor to send an INDIVIDUAL email of the
final grade to the student’s UIUC email address. The instructor must not
send a class list of all grades.
If I have the students’ social security numbers, why can’t I use
them when posting grades?
We are moving away from the use of the Social Security Number (SSN), but
you may still have access to SSNs on class rosters, final grade
collection lists, or on UI Direct screens. However, the SSN is not
considered public information and should not be used in any way by
instructors.
Information on FERPA can be found at the following URLs:
http://www.oar.uiuc.edu/staff/ferpa/index.html
http://www.oar.uiuc.edu/staff/ferpa_tutorial/index.html
FERPA is also included in the discussion of Student Records in the student manual,
found at
http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/policy/code/
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