FERPA
What is FERPA?
FERPA stands for "Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act" of 1974, as amended. It is commonly known as FERPA, the privacy act or the buckley amendment. It is a federal law designed to protect the privacy of educational records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their educational records and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate and misleading data through informal and formal hearings.
FERPA allows release of specified items but does not require it. Items that may be released are called directory information. San Antonio College has classified these items as directory information: student’s name, dates of attendance, major, classification, enrollment status (full-time or part-time), previous institution(s) attended, degree(s) awarded, academic honors/awards.
Students may place a directory hold on any or all of this information by completing the "Requst to Withhold or Remove Hold on Disclosure of Directory Information" form. The form can be accessed, completed and submitted at our Student Forms website. After this information is entered into the system the student's information will be blocked.
Student information may not be released without a signed "FERPA Consent” form from the student. The form can be accessed, completed and submitted at our Student Forms website. Items that can never be identified as directory information are a student’s social security number or institutional identification number, address, telephone number, date of birth, race/ethnicity, citizenship, nationality, gender, grades, grade point average or class schedule.
What is a student educational record?
What is legitimate educational interest?
Posting of grades by faculty
Penalties for violating FERPA
Special “do not” for faculty
- At any time use the social security number, institutional identification number or any portion of the number of a student in a public posting of grades.
- Ever link the name of a student with that student’s social security number, institutional identification number in any public manner.
- Leave graded tests or papers in a stack for students to pick up by sorting through the tests or papers of all students.
- Circulate a printed class list with student name and social security number/institutional identification number or grades as an attendance roster.
- Discuss the progress of any student with anyone other than the student (including parents/guardians) without the consent of the student.
- Provide anyone with lists of students enrolled in your classes for any commercial purpose.
- Provide anyone with student schedules or assist anyone other than college employees in finding a student on campus.
Question and answer session
The Office of Student Records Director is available to participate in a FERPA question and answer session for any department or college faculty meeting.
Please refer any parent/guardian seeking information on student covered by FERPA, to the Office of Student Records by emailing sac-ar@alamo.edu.