Disclosure of Educational Records

Information defined as Directory Information may be released without a student’s consent.

The College defines Directory Information to include:

• Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Email address
• Birthday and month
• Enrollment Status/Grade Level (e.g. First Term, Second Term, etc.)
• Date of Graduation
• Degrees and Honors Received
• Photos
• Major Field of Study
• Dates of Attendance
• Participation in officially recognized activities and sports
• Most Recent School Attended
• A student ID or online user ID (as long as it may not be used to access educational records except when in conjunction with a student’s personal password or personal PIN)

Note: A student’s social security number can never be considered Directory Information.

A student may opt out of Directory Information disclosure by submitting a written request to the Registrar within 80 days of the student’s start of classes.

The student has the right to consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in the student's education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.

Generally, schools must have written permission from the student in order to release any personally identifiable information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):

• School officials, including teachers, with legitimate educational interest, as defined;
• Authorized representatives with a legitimate educational interest, as defined;
• Other schools to which a student is transferring or has already transferred;
• Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
• Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
• Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
• Accrediting organizations;
• To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
• Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
• State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law

It is possible, under limited circumstances, that your record could be disclosed by one of the parties listed above, to another authorized representative with a legitimate educational interest. For example, your record may be provided to the US Department of Education for audit purposes, and the Department could share that record with the Office of Inspector General.

The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the College to comply with the requirements of FERPA. Complaints must be filed within 180 days of the alleged violation and specify the violation with enough detail to identify the referenced violation. The name and address of the Office that administers FERPA is:

Family Policy Compliance Office
Department of Education
Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202?4605

The College will maintain a log of all written FERPA record requests including the records disclosed and the interest of the parties who requested the records.

Additional FERPA information available from the College includes:

• Procedures for the inspection and review of records
• Procedures for requesting amendment of records
• Other related procedures