By Audience: Postsecondary School Officials

The resources on this page are intended for staff and educators of Postsecondary Institutions.  Resources found here typically address FERPA’s requirements and how they apply to the various day-to-day operations of postsecondary institutions that may be different than the K-12 setting.  Guidance is also provided for the particular challenges encountered at the postsecondary level as it relates to the handling and protection of students’ Personally Identifiable Information.

Guidance

Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of FERPA Enforcement

The Department is committed to protecting student privacy. To provide more timely and effective assistance to parents and students and to address a recommendation made by the Department’s Office of the Inspector General to “implement a risk-based approach to processing and resolving FERPA complaints,”  the Department is modifying its investigatory practices to more efficiently address and resolve complaints and violations under FERPA.  

Recorded Webinars

Credit Interoperability and Blockchain Solutions - Webinar

In the first installment of our three part webinar series, we will discuss an important credit interoperability use case — reverse transfer, where postsecondary institutions facilitate data transactions between with other academic institutions to award credentials to students when they physically transfer. During this session, we will explore where in the implementation of this system occur implications for data privacy and security, how FERPA applies in these cases, and what questions were addressed by the institutions involved to ensure FERPA compliance.

Best Practices

FERPA and Virtual Learning during COVID-19

Webinar slides for "FERPA and Virtual Learning during the COVID-19" presentation.  This webinar is intended to provide information on privacy best practices and insight into helpful resources available to the education community during this critical time of national emergency. 

We will address commonly asked questions related to the challenges of complying with student privacy laws like FERPA during this time and present a series of scenarios which highlight privacy best practices and considerations when adopting distance learning approaches.