Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

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 education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.

According to FERPA, personally identifiable information in an education record may not be released without prior written consent from the student. Some examples of information that MAY NOT BE RELEASED without prior written consent of the student are:

birth date
religious affiliation
citizenship
disciplinary status
ethnicity
gender
grade point average (GPA)
marital status
SSN/student I.D.
grades/exam scores
test scores (e.g., SAT, GRE, etc.)

Additional general information about FERPA is located on Texas State University’s FERPA page.

FERPA Scenarios for Faculty

Check out this short three-minute video created by Kettering University that provides some interesting scenarios illustrating how FERPA applies to faculty.