The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) was enacted to protect the privacy of students’ education records, to establish the rights of students to inspect and review their education records, and to provide students with an opportunity to have inaccurate or misleading information in their education records corrected.
As a faculty member, you may have access to certain student information which is protected by FERPA. Below is some key information you should know about the School of Engineering’s Policy:
- As an instructor, you are not entitled to access a student’s academic records. This information may be accessed by the student’s adviser, but not by instructors.
- You should not pass around a single sheet of paper in class for all the students to write their contact information (phone, email address, etc.). Collect the contact information on individual sheets or cards. Students may share their personal information with each other only voluntarily and on their own.
- You may discuss a student’s personal information only with (a) the student, or (b) Institute officials who have a legitimate educational interest in having that information. If you receive any requests from someone identifying themself as a parent, family member, legal guardian, spouse, etc. – do not respond. Forward these requests to Eric Maiello and the IDM academic director.
- Don’t leave graded papers, tests, or other assignments in a pile to be picked up.
- Don’t post grades publicly by name, social security number, or Student ID Number.
- Keep only individual student records necessary for the fulfillment of your professional responsibilities.