What are the basic rules?

Under FERPA, student education records are confidential and may not be released without the written consent of the student. As a member of the faculty, administration or staff, you have a responsibility to protect education records in your possession, custody or control.

For a record to be released to a student making a request, it must be directly related to the student. A record is directly related to a student if it contains information that is personally identifiable to the student. Examples of personally identifiable information include: student’s name; name of the student’s parent or family member; address of the student or student’s family; a personal identifier, such as the student’s social security number or student number; a list of personal characteristics that would make the student’s identity easily traceable; or any other information that would make the student easily traceable.

Further consideration must be given whenever the prior knowledge or circumstance of the person seeking disclosure of the education record may make the student identifiable or easily traceable.

Some information is called “directory information” and is considered public. This information usually may be released without a student’s written consent. However, a student may exercise his or her right to consider this information confidential as well. Wheelock College identifies the following as “directory information”: name, graduation class, addresses (campus, home and email), telephone listings (local, home and cell), major and secondary concentrations of study, participation in officially recognized sports and off-campus study programs, dates of attendance, degrees, honors and awards achieved, and photographs and electronic images of the student solicited by or maintained directly by Wheelock College as part of the education record. Therefore, you may (but are not required to) release this “directory information” without a student’s written consent unless the student has chosen to consider this information confidential.

Parents of students do not have automatic rights to access a Wheelock College student’s education records. However, if the student is a dependent of his or her parents for federal income tax purposes, you may disclose information to a student’s parents if the student has given you prior permission to do so. In general, it is a good idea to check with the Office of Academic Records and Registration before releasing information to any third party (including parents) unless you have obtained prior permission from the student in writing.

When dealing with records that involve more than one student, information pertaining to any student(s) other than the student requesting the record may not be disclosed. The record must be redacted to include only information that pertains to the requesting student. Any personally identifiable information about another student may not be disclosed.

If you receive a written request for the disclosure of a student’s education record, you must respond within forty-five (45) days.