The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) is a Federal law requiring the confidentiality of student’s records and information. Learn more about FERPA from the Registrar’s Office webpage.
To protect your student’s confidentiality and to avoid violation of FERPA rules, DO NOT:
- Post grades publicly.
- At any time use the full or partial Social Security Number of a student on any class rosters, grade sheets, or posting of grades.
- 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 & ID 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 purposes.
- Provide anyone with student schedules or assist anyone other than college employees in finding a student on campus.
- E-mail grades to students. There is no guarantee of confidentiality of e-mail. Students may check their mid-semester assessments and final grades in myHill.
- Include in a student recommendation letter any personally identifiable information obtained from a student’s education record (grades, GPA, ranking in class, etc.) without a signed FERPA Consent Form from the student. (FERPA Consent Forms are available in myHill: Offices > Registrar > Top of the page).
Directory Information
At its discretion, the College may provide Directory Information without the consent of the student in accordance with the provisions of the Act, which information includes: student name, current enrollment, address, e-mail address, telephone number, class standing (first-year, sophomore, junior, senior), full- or part-time status, schedule of classes, photograph, date and place of birth, major and minor fields of study, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, including Dean’s List and graduation honors, most recent previous educational institution attended, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams.
Students may instruct the College to withhold Directory Information by notifying the Registrar in writing within two weeks after the first day of class for each semester. Request for nondisclosure will be honored by the institution for only one academic semester; therefore, authorization to withhold Directory Information must be filed each semester in the Registrar’s Office. Please note that requesting nondisclosure will prevent the College from releasing any directory information to anyone or any agency (including, College news releases, potential employers, and family or friends) without consent of the student.
Dealing with Parents and FERPA
Every student is asked to submit a FERPA release form to the Registrar’s Office in their first year. This form indicates which College Officials and Faculty are authorized to talk to regarding academic, student life and financial situations. That information is kept on file in the Registrar’s Office so if there is ever a question or contact from a parent or other outside source claiming to know the student, please contact the Registrar’s Office or Academic Advising before responding, so that you can be sure you are not violating the student’s privacy rights.