The start of the academic year is an excellent time to remind all faculty and staff of the importance of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). FERPA protects the privacy of a student’s academic record. It applies to all institutions that receive federal funding and applies at the point an applicant becomes a student.
Despite FERPA’s detailed recitation of rights and sanctions, it is student-friendly, legally necessary, and very important for ethical good practice in higher education. FERPA assists the university in respecting students’ privacy by providing specific guidelines about when University employees can and can’t, should and shouldn’t share information about students and their academic work.
It is the responsibility of every Clarkson employee to protect student education records. To that end, please be certain to:
- Protect all electronic and physical data, reports and rosters containing student information. Do not share reports with others.
- Protect data viewable on your computer screens. Do not leave computers unattended, and lock paper data, thumb drives, reports and rosters in a secure place.
- DO NOT post grades in public spaces, including in classrooms or on office doors. This includes leaving graded assignments in public spaces for students to pick up*
- Do not speak with parents or others about specific student information such as attendance, assignments, exams, quizzes, tests or grades without written authorization from the student, or authorization on file with the SAS office.
- Request written authorization from students prior to writing letters of recommendation that reference specific course information, grades, class schedules, or internship experiences, etc.
- Call SAS with any questions you may have.
Clarkson University’s FERPA policy can be found in Clarkson’s Regulations.
*How to protect student privacy while handing back graded work:
- Students can submit their work in an envelope labeled with their name. The instructor can seal confidential information (e.g. the work with the grade and teacher’s comments) inside the envelope and leave it out for students to retrieve.
- Handing back work during class is appropriate, as long as care is taken to ensure students do not see each other’s grades. When possible, write the grade on the second page of a multi-page document.
- You MAY post scores and grades using a passcode created especially for your class, and known only to the student and you, the instructor. Take care to keep passcodes confidential, and to post grades randomly (e.g. if you post grades by passcode, but in alphabetical order, it will be easy to students in smaller classes to match a student to a grade (that is, everyone would know that Alicia Alvarez’s grade was first on the list, and Zach Zimmerman’s grade was last).
