Federal student privacy law

Rules go hand in hand with easier access to data

Nearly every faculty and staff member has heard of FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. But far fewer may understand the ins and outs of the federal law and its impact on campus life.

Registrar Joanne Berg says improved access to student data through the Integrated Student Information System, the My UW–Madison portal and the data warehouse makes it more important than ever for faculty and staff to have a working knowledge of the rules.

Simply put, the act governs and protects students’ rights to their individual educational record. It grants four specific rights to eligible students:

• The right to inspect and review their education records.
• The right to request the amendment of inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate education records.
• The right to consent to disclosure of their records.
• The right to file a complaint regarding non-compliance with the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C.

“Accessibility of information creates a higher level of responsibility for protecting against inappropriate use,” she says. “A variety of federal laws recognize this responsibility, and it is one that the university takes very seriously. Privacy is everyone’s business and everyone’s responsibility.”

In the normal course of university life, the act comes into play in situations that include grade requests from parents, grading of exams and display of student scores.

The office is always willing to advise members of the campus community on issues of student privacy, Berg says.

Here are some key guidelines for compliance:

• Refer requests for information from the educational record of a student to the Registrar’s Office.
• Keep only those individual student records necessary for the fulfillment of teaching and advising responsibilities.
• Keep any personal professional records relating to individual students separate from their educational records. Private notes of a faculty or staff member concerning a student that are intended for the member’s own use are not a part of the student’s educational records.
• Do not display student scores or grades publicly in association with names, SSN, campus IDs or other personal identifiers.
• Do not put papers, graded exam books or lab reports containing student names and grades in publicly accessible places. Students are not to have access to the scores and grades of others in the class in ways that allow other students to be identified.
• Do not request information from the educational record custodian without a legitimate educational interest and the appropriate authority to do so.
• Do not share student educational record information, including grades or GPAs with other faculty or staff members unless their official responsibilities identify their “legitimate educational interest” in that information for that student.
• Do not share information from student educational records, including grades or GPAs with parents or others outside the institution, including letters of recommendation, without written permission from the student.
• Do not allow students to grade each other’s work when the score will be recorded.

For more information: visit http://registrar.wisc.edu/ferpa/ or call 262-3811.