Undergraduate Advising Handbook Advising

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for Faculty/Advisors

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law designed to protect the privacy of a student’s education records. It provides guidelines for appropriately using and releasing student information. It is intended to broadly define and apply student rights.

Once a student is enrolled in a postsecondary institution the student is considered to be the ‘owner’ of the education record and the institution and its personnel are the ‘custodian’ of that record.

FERPA gives rights to students attending postsecondary institutions certain rights in regard to their education records.

• The right to inspect and review their own education records.
• The right to request amendment to their own education records.
• The right to some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from their education records.

The top 10 steps to take to avoid FERPA problems and a visit from the campus FERPA enforcer:

1. Do not take attendance by passing around your class roster printed from Fish’R’Net.
2. Do not leave graded assignments in the hallway for students to pick up.
3. Do not discuss a student’s performance in class with a parent who just stop by during your office hours or called with a concern.
4. Do not post grades outside your office or give grades over the phone.
5. Do not send any personally identifiable information or grades to students via e-mail.
6. Do not use an e-mail address other than the @sjfc.edu account to contact students.
7. Do not share your advising notes with other faculty members in your department or program.
8. Do not respond to outside requests for specific information about your students, the students in your major or program or the students in the college. Refer all requests to the Director or Marketing and Communications at x8070.
9. Do not use the student name or ID in the subject line of an @sjfc.edu e-mail to other college personnel.
10. Simply think about student information as your information and protect it the very same way your want your personal information treated.