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FERPA Snapshot

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Title: FERPA Snapshot


1
FERPA Snapshot
  • Bradley R. Barnes, CISSP
  • Chief Information Officer
  • Oklahoma State University Center for Veterinary
    Health Sciences
  • Bradley.r.barnes_at_okstate.edu

2
FERPA Snapshot
  • Bradley R. Barnes, CISSP
  • Chief Information Officer
  • Oklahoma State University Center for Veterinary
    Health Sciences
  • Bradley.r.barnes_at_okstate.edu

3
Privacy Puzzle
4
What is FERPA?
  • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
    (20 U.S.C. 1232g 34 CFR Part 99)
  • AKA Buckley Amendment
  • Provides for privacy of educational records

5
Why Should I Care?
  • Uh, its Federal Law?

6
Why Should I Care?
  • Personal Safety?
  • FERPA drew widespread attention after the 2007
    Virginia Tech massacre. Two government reports
    found that the law likely played a role in the
    school's decision not to share the shooter's
    mental-health history with anyone before the
    incident, findings that led Congress to revise
    the statute.

7
Why Should I Care?
  • Student Safety?
  • In another high-profile case, the University of
    Kansas cited FERPA to explain why it didn't
    disclose the previous drinking citations of Jason
    Wren, a 19-year-old student who died in March
    after a night of binge drinking. The university
    says it has since revised its parental
    notification policy.

8
Why Should I Care?
  • Institutional Reputation?
  • Roger Williams University in Rhode Island was
    criticized for hiring the university president's
    26-year-old son for a fund-raising job, which
    required a bachelor's degree. Citing the federal
    act, the university declined to say whether the
    son, Chris Nirschel, finished his undergraduate
    education at Roger Williams -- or anywhere else.

9
Why Should I Care?
  • Litigation?
  • Recent lawsuit by Chicago Tribune publisher
    Tribune Co. against the University of Illinois
    highlighted the dilemma surrounding FERPA. The
    newspaper reported that Illinois lawmakers
    pressured university officials into admitting
    politically connected yet sometimes unqualified
    applicants, a claim the university has
    acknowledged.

10
Why Should I Care?
  • The Tribune's suit seeks information, including
    high school grade point averages, for about 800
    applicants. But the publisher says in the suit it
    isn't asking for applicants' names or any
    identifying information, claiming that FERPA is
    valid only if it pinpoints specific students.

11
Why Should I Care?
  • University officials say the school isn't trying
    to save face, but to follow the law. "At this
    point, we've given more than 5,000 pages of
    documents," says university spokesman Tom Hardy.
    "The only thing we haven't given is student
    information, because doing that would potentially
    violate FERPA."

12
Why Should I Care?
  • Public/Lawmaker Focus?
  • Inconsistencies in the application of the
    35-year-old law were detailed in a recent series
    of stories in The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch that
    said schools often hide behind FERPA in
    improperly censoring a wide range of athletics
    records beyond the academic and other personal
    information it was designed to protect.

13
Why Should I Care?
  • Records related to coaches and boosters, details
    of rules infractions and crimes and other
    information that should be publicly accessible
    have been withheld, the newspaper said. James L.
    Buckley, the former U.S. senator who drafted
    FERPA in 1974, told the newspaper the statute was
    being misapplied.

14
What is Attendance?
  • In Person
  • By Correspondence
  • Videoconference
  • Satellite
  • Internet
  • Other electronic information and
    telecommunications technologies

15
Who is a Student?
  • An individual who is or has been in attendance
    at an educational agency or institution and
    regarding whom the agency or institution
    maintains education records

16
Who is an Eligible Student?
  • A student who has reached 18 years of age or
    attends a postsecondary institution and thereby
    becomes an eligible student.

17
What is a Record?
  • Any information recorded in any way, including,
    but not limited to, handwriting, print, computer
    media, video or audio tape, film, microfilm, and
    microfiche.

18
What is an Education Record?
  • Directly related to a student and maintained by
    an educational agency or institution or by a
    party acting for the agency or institution
  • Records relating to an individual in attendance
    at the agency or institution who is employed as a
    result of his or her status as a student are
    education records
  • Records that pertain to a individuals previous
    attendance as a student regardless of when they
    were created or received by the institution

19
Annual Notification
  • A school must annually notify students in
    attendance that they may
  • Inspect and review their education records
  • Seek amendment of inaccurate or misleading
    information in their education records
  • Consent to most disclosures of personally
    identifiable information from education records.

20
Annual Notification
  • The annual notice must also include
  • Information for a student to file a complaint of
    an alleged violation with the FPCO
  • A description of who is considered to be a school
    official and what is considered to be a
    legitimate educational interest so that
    information may be shared with that individual
    and
  • Information about who to contact to seek access
    or amendment of education records.

21
Means of Notification
  • May include student newspaper calendar student
    programs guide rules handbook, or other means
    reasonable likely to inform students
  • Notification does not have to be made
    individually to students.

22
What is Personally Identifiable Information?
  • "Personally identifiable information" includes,
    but is not limited to
  • Direct Personal Identifiers
  • The student's name
  • Student ID
  • Social Security Number
  • Indirect Personal Identifiers
  • Date and place of birth
  • Mothers maiden name

23
What is Personally Identifiable Information?
  • The name of the student's parent or other family
    member
  • The address of the student or student's family
  • A personal identifier, such as the student's
    student ID number or userid which would allow
    access to additional student records without
    further validation
  • A list of personal characteristics or other
    information that would make the student's
    identity easily traceable

24
What is Personally Identifiable Information?
  • Biometric Records
  • A record of one or more measurable biological or
    behavioral characteristics that can be used for
    automated recognition of an individual, including
    fingerprints, retina and iris patterns,
    voiceprints, DNA sequence, facial
    characteristics, and handwriting.

25
What is Personally Identifiable Information?
  • Information requested by a person who the
    educational agency or institution reasonably
    believes knows the identity of the student to
    whom the education record relates
  • Other information that, alone or in combination,
    is linked or linkable to a specific student that
    would allow a reasonable person in the school
    community, who does not have personal knowledge
    of the relevant circumstances, to identify the
    student with reasonable certainty

26
What is Directory Information?
  • FERPA defines "directory information" as
    information contained in the education records of
    a student that would not generally be considered
    harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed.

27
What is Directory Information?
  • Directory Information Includes, but is not
    limited to
  • Student's name
  • Address
  • Telephone listing
  • Electronic mail address
  • Photograph
  • Date and place of birth
  • Major Field of Study
  • Grade Level

28
What is Directory Information?
  • Enrollment status (e.g., undergraduate or
    graduate full-time or part-time)
  • Dates of Attendance
  • Participation in officially recognized activities
    and sports,
  • Weight and height of members of athletic teams
  • Degrees, honors and awards received
  • Most recent educational agency or institution
    attended

29
What Cannot Be Directory Information?
  • Directory information cannot include
  • Student identification numbers or user IDs which
    by themselves grant additional access to student
    records
  • Social Security Numbers
  • Ethnicity/race/nationality
  • Gender

30
Who is a School Official?
  • School official must be defined by the
    institution as a matter of published policy
  • Contractors, consultants, volunteers, and other
    outside service providers used by a school
    district or postsecondary Institution to perform
    institutional services and functions. A
    contractor (or other outside service provider)
    that is given access to education records under
    this provision must be under the direct control
    of the disclosing institution

31
Who is a School Official?
  • Disclosure is permitted under this exception only
    if the district or institution is outsourcing a
    service it would otherwise provide using
    employees

32
Who is a School Official?
  • A district or institution may not disclose
    education records to an outside service provider
    under this exception unless it has specified in
    its annual FERPA notification that it uses
    contractors, consultants, volunteers, etc. as
    school officials to provide certain institutional
    services and functions

33
What is a Legitimate Educational Interest?
  • Legitimate educational interests is defined as
    an interest which results from duties officially
    assigned to a school official and which are
    related to such a school officials
    responsibility for facilitating the students
    development.

34
What are Excluded Records?
  • Records that are kept in the sole possession of
    the maker, are used only as a personal memory
    aid, and are not accessible or revealed to any
    other person except a temporary substitute for
    the maker of the record.
  • Records of the law enforcement unit of an
    educational agency or institution, subject to the
    provisions of 99.8.

35
What are Excluded Records?
  • Records relating to an individual who is employed
    by an educational agency or institution, that
  • Are made and maintained in the normal course of
    business
  • Relate exclusively to the individual in that
    individual's capacity as an employee and
  • Are not available for use for any other purpose.

36
What are Excluded Records?
  • Records on a student who is 18 years of age or
    older, or is attending an institution of
    postsecondary education, that are
  • Made or maintained by a physician, psychiatrist,
    psychologist, or other recognized professional or
    paraprofessional acting in his or her
    professional capacity or assisting in a
    paraprofessional capacity

37
What are Excluded Records?
  • Made, maintained, or used only in connection with
    treatment of the student and
  • Disclosed only to individuals providing the
    treatment. For the purpose of this definition,
    "treatment" does not include remedial educational
    activities or activities that are part of the
    program of instruction at the agency or
    institution and
  • Records that only contain information about an
    individual after he or she is no longer a student
    at that agency or institution and which do not
    pertain to previous attendance.
  • Grades on peer-graded papers before they are
    collected and recorded by a teacher.

38
Access Records
  • A school must
  • provide a student with an opportunity to inspect
    and review his or her education records within 45
    days of the receipt of a request
  • provide a student with copies of education
    records or otherwise make the records available
    to the student if the student, for instance,
    lives outside of commuting distance of the school
  • redact the names and other personally
    identifiable information about other students
    that may be included in the student's education
    records.

39
Amend Records
  • Consider a request from a student to amend
    inaccurate or misleading information in the
    student's education records
  • Offer the student a hearing on the matter if it
    decides not to amend the records in accordance
    with the request
  • Offer the student a right to place a statement to
    be kept and disclosed with the record if as a
    result of the hearing the school still decides
    not to amend the record.

40
Disclosure of Records
  • A school must
  • Have a student's consent prior to the disclosure
    of education records
  • Ensure that the consent is signed and dated and
    states the purpose of the disclosure.
  • Honor a former students opt-out request made
    while in attendance unless it has been
    specifically rescinded by the former student.

41
Disclosure of Records
  • Use reasonable methods to identify and
    authenticate the identity of parents, students,
    school officials, and any other parties to whom
    they disclose education records.
  • Prohibit the use of an SSN as an identification
    element when disclosing or confirming directory
    information unless the student has provided
    written consent for the disclosure.

42
Disclosure of Records
  • A school MAY disclose education records without
    consent when
  • The disclosure is to school officials who have
    been determined to have legitimate educational
    interests as set forth in the institution's
    annual notification of rights to students
  • The student is seeking or intending to enroll in
    another school and after the student has enrolled
    at another school

43
Disclosure of Records
  • The disclosure is to state or local educational
    authorities auditing or enforcing Federal or
    State supported education programs or enforcing
    Federal laws which relate to those programs
  • The disclosure is to the parents of a student who
    is a dependent for income tax purposes
  • The disclosure is in compliance with the Clery
    Act

44
Disclosure of Records
  • The disclosure is in connection with determining
    eligibility, amounts, and terms for financial aid
    or enforcing the terms and conditions of
    financial aid
  • The disclosure is pursuant to a lawfully issued
    court order or subpoena or
  • The information disclosed has been appropriately
    designated as directory information by the
    school.

45
Disclosure of Records
  • The records are redacted or provide only
    statistical information (been de-identified
    through the removal of all personally
    identifiable information taking into account
    unique patterns of information about the student,
    whether through single or multiple releases, and
    other reasonably available information

46
Disclosure of Records
  • A school should also consider other information
    that is linked or linkable to a student, such as
    law enforcement records, published directories,
    and other publicly available records that could
    be used to identify a student, and the cumulative
    effect of disclosure of student data.

47
Disclosure of Records
  • The disclosing party must look to local news,
    events, and media coverage in the school
    community in determining whether other
    information (i.e., information other than direct
    and indirect identifiers listed in the definition
    of PII), would make a particular record
    personally identifiable even after all direct
    identifiers have been removed

48
Disclosure of Records
  • In all cases, the disclosing party must determine
    whether the other information that is linked or
    linkable to an education record would allow a
    reasonable person in the school community to
    identify the student with reasonable certainty.
  • May not disclose information requested by a
    person who the educational institution reasonably
    believes knows the identity of the student to
    whom the education record relates.

49
Data Disclosure
Veterans by zipcode
Female Students by zipcode
All Students by major
50
Not Data Disclosure
  • Returning an education record, or information
    from an education record, to the party identified
    as the provider or creator of the record. (This
    will help schools deal with falsified
    transcripts, letters of recommendation, and other
    documents they receive by allowing an institution
    that has received a questionable document to
    return it to the ostensible sender for
    verification.)

51
Not Data Disclosure
  • A school may disclose education records to a
    parent of a dependent student under any
    circumstance this exception to the consent
    requirement is likely to cover the vast majority
    of traditional college students.
  • Even if a student is not a dependent, a
    postsecondary institution may disclose education
    records to a students parent under the alcohol
    or controlled substance exception if the student
    is under the age of 21.

52
Not Data Disclosure
  • If the school determines that there is an
    articulable and significant threat to the health
    or safety of a student or other individuals, it
    may disclose information from education records
    to appropriate parties whose knowledge of the
    information is necessary to protect the health
    and safety of the student or other individuals.
    This may include the parents of an eligible
    student.

53
No Hiding in Class!
  • An opt out of directory information disclosures
    does not prevent a school from identifying a
    student by name or from disclosing a students
    electronic identifier or institutional email
    address in class. This change clarifies that a
    right to opt out of directory information
    disclosures does not include a right to remain
    anonymous in class, and may not be used to impede
    routine classroom communications and interactions.

54
Records Redisclosure
  • An educational agency or institution may disclose
    personally identifiable information from an
    education record only on the condition that the
    party to whom the information is disclosed will
    not disclose the information to any other party
    without the prior consent of the parent or
    eligible student.
  • The officers, employees, and agents of a party
    that receives information may use the
    information, but only for the purposes for which
    the disclosure was made.

55
Solomon Amendment (10 USC Sec. 983)
  • Schools must provide access by military
    recruiters for purposes of military recruiting to
    the following information pertaining to students
    (who are 17 years of age or older) enrolled at
    that institution (or any subelement of that
    institution)
  • Names, addresses, and telephone listings.
  • Date and place of birth, levels of education,
    academic majors, degrees received, and the most
    recent educational institution enrolled in by the
    student.

56
More Information
  • http//www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/index.html
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