About FERPA
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student educational records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. See also: ... This site provides more detailed information regarding the specifics of the Buckley Amendment.
Generally, schools must have written permission from the eligible student to release any information from a student’s educational records. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):
- School officials with legitimate educational interest;
- Other schools to which a student is transferring;
- Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
- Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
- Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
- Accrediting agencies;
- To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
- Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies;
- and State and local authorities, within a juvenile system, pursuant to specific State law.
Schools may disclose, without consent, “directory” information such as a student’s name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell eligible students about directory information and allow eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them. Schools must notify eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA. The actual means of notification (special letter, inclusion in a course schedule, student handbook or newspaper article) is left to the discretion of each school.
The form below provides you an opportunity to report any incident that you believe is a violation of your privacy rights at the university, including the public dissemination of your social security number or other confidential information, or the disclosure of confidential information to an inappropriate agency or authority.
You may send this report anonymously, but no reply can be made unless you provide your contact information. For those who do include their name and/or other contact information, the University will follow up with results of the investigation.