Protect Our Students

To be allowed access to student records, you must carefully review the material presented in this site. Maintaining confidentiality of student records is everyone's responsibility whether you are faculty, staff or student.

Why?

  • Because it is the right thing to do
  • Because the federal government requires us to do so

This tutorial is designed to give you base-level knowledge of the rules governing the release of student information.

Start the tutorial now

What is FERPA?

FERPA stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (sometimes called the Buckley Amendment). Passed by Congress in 1974, the act grants four specific rights to the adult student:

  • the right to see the information that the institution is keeping on the student
  • the right to seek amendment to those records and in certain cases append a statement to the record
  • the right to consent to disclosure of his/her records
  • the right to file a complaint with the FERPA Office in Washington

What is a student educational record?

just about any information provided by a student to the College for use in the educational process is considered a student educational record:

  • personal information
  • enrollment records
  • grades
  • schedules

the storage media in which you find this information does not matter. Student educational records may be:

  • a document in the registrar's office
  • a computer printout in your office
  • a class list on your desktop
  • a computer display screen
  • notes you have taken during an advisement session

What are the basic rules?

  • Student educational records are considered confidential and may not be released without the written consent of the student
  • As a faculty or staff member you have a responsibility to protect educational records in your possession
  • Some information is considered public (sometimes called "Directory Information").This info can be released without the student's written permission. However, the student may opt to consider this info confidential as well. Directory information is: name, address, phone, dates of attendance, degrees received, major program, height and weight of athletes, email address, full or part time status and date of birth.
  • You have access to information only for legitimate use in completion of your responsibilities as a College employee. Need to know is the basic principle.
  • If you are ever in doubt, do not release any information until you contact the Office of the Registrar at 516.678.5000 ext. 6226. The registrar is responsible for student record information.

Special "Don'ts" for Faculty

To avoid violations of FERPA rules, DO NOT:

  • at any time use any part of the social security number of a student in a public posting of grades
  • ever link the name of a student with that student's social security number in any public manner
  • leave graded tests in a stack for students to pick up by sorting through the papers of all students
  • circulate a printed class list with student name and social security number or grades as an attendance roster.
  • discuss the progress of any student with anyone other than the student (including parents) 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

Quiz

For a better understanding of the FERPA law please take the following QUIZ

If any point you wish to read Molloy College's Guidelines for Compliance with FERPA, you may click on the FERPA guidelines link located at the top of each page.

Question 1:

If a student's parent calls asking how a student is doing in a class, can you give out that information?

Question 2:

You receive a call from a recruiting firm asking for names and addresses of students with a GPA of 3.0 or better. They say they have good job information for these students. Can you help these students get jobs by giving out this information?

Question 3:

A person comes up to you with a letter containing a signature that gives consent to the release of the transcript of a student. Do you give the transcipt to them?

Question 4:

You receive a phone call from the local police department indicating that they are trying to determine whether a particular student was in attendance on a specific day. Since they are in the middle of a investigation are you allowed to give them this information?

Question 5:

You get a frantic phone call from an individual who says that he is a student's father and must get in touch with her immediately because of a family emergency. Can you tell him when and where her next class is today?

Question 6:

Is it wrong for professors to leave exams, papers, etc. outside their office for students to pick up?

Question 7:

An unauthorized person retrieves information from a computer screen that was left unattended. Under FERPA, is the institution responsible?

Congratulations!

You have completed the FERPA tutorial. You are well on your way to becoming an expert on student confidentiality rights.

Thank you for taking the time familiarize yourself with student confidentiality rights as outlined under FERPA.

FERPA Tutorial Completion

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Contact Us

Have questions about anything here? Feel free to drop us a quick note!

Of course, feel free to Contact Us.

Office of Academic Affairs
1000 Hempstead Avenue Kellenberg Hall, K118 Rockville Centre, New York 11571-5002

516.323.3008

Office-of-Academic-Affairs@molloy.edu