What is FERPA?

FERPA, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, is an American federal law that governs how institutions protect student Education Records.

FERPA does this by:

• Outlining students' rights concerning their Education Records
• Establishing conditions for when student Education Records can be shared with third parties

What does FERPA do?

In short, FERPA does three things:

1. Defines "Education Records"
2. Ensures students' rights to inspect their own Education Records and to request amendments to inaccurate information
3. Requires that university officials receive students' consent before disclosing student Education Records to third parties

What is an 'Education Record', according to FERPA?

According to FERPA, Education Records are those academic records, files, documents, and other materials which (i) contain information directly related to a student and are (ii) maintained by an educational institution.

Education Records include:

• Academic transcripts including official documents related to grades
• Disciplinary Records
• Financial records, including those of a parent which pertain to a given student

What is not considered an 'Education Record', according to FERPA?

FERPA defines "Directory Information" as information contained in an education record of a student that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed.

According to FERPA Directory Information includes a student's:

• Name
• address
• telephone listing
• electronic mail address
• photograph
• date of birth
• major field of study
• grade level
• dates of attendance
• honors and awards received.

Under FERPA, Institutions and School Officials may disclose Directory Information to third parties without students' consent.

FERPA Compliance: Edugator

To ensure FERPA compliance, Edugator treats user (student and instructional staff) Personal Identifiable Information (PII) or other data as confidential and does not share it with third parties except where required by law, to protect our own rights, or to provide a service to you. You authorize Edugator to access and process your data solely for the purposes of providing the Service, as an outsourced institutional function pursuant to FERPA 34 CFR Part 99.31(a)(1). The instructional staff or institution owns the right, title and interest to all user data you provide or otherwise make available to us, and Edugator does not own, control or license such data. You acknowledge and agree that, as between the parties, you are solely responsible for any and all data, whether provided by instructional staff, student, institution or any other third party. Users can also request for any Education Records pertaining to them to be destroyed by emailing us at csinfraweb@gmail.com. We only retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide you with a service.