The University of Tennessee - Martin

Click HERE for additional information about Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act - 1974

FERPA Online Training Presentation (coming soon)

FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's educational records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are "eligible students."

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
Final Rule
34 CFR Part 99
Section-by-Section Analysis
December 2008

If a student wishes to waive his or her rights under FERPA, a waiver must be filed with the Office of Academic Records.  This form must be signed by the student and that signature must be notarized.

Privacy Waiver Form

The University of Tennessee at Martin also complies with the regulations set forth in the Solomon Amendment.

DIRECTORY INFORMATION:

The University designates the following items as Directory Information.  The University may disclose any of these items without prior written consent, unless the student notifies the Registrar in writing to the contrary prior to the 14th day after the Semester begins.

A.  Name

B.  Address

C.  Telephone Number

D.  Major Field of Study

E.  Date and Place of Birth

F.  Participation in Officially Recognized Activities   and Sports

G.  Weight and Height of Members of Athletic Teams

H.  Dates of Attendance

I.  Degrees and Awards Received

J.  Most Recent Previous School Attended

K.  Photograph

L.  Email Address

M.  Classification

 

Definitions and other information:

• a student "who is or has been in attendance" --begins when admitted to the university and includes face to face class, paper correspondence, video conference, satellite, internet, or other electronic information or telecommunications technologies.

• Disclosure--the university may attempt to confirm the authenticity of a transcript, letter of recommendation, or other record by sending the suspicious record back to the school official from whom the record supposedly originated. The school official may confirm or deny that the record is authentic and, if it is not, send the correct record.  The institution is not required to notify the student that the institution suspects a document is fraudulent.

• Education Records--Does not include records that are: (1)created or received by the educational institution after an individual is no longer a student in attendance (2)not directly related to the individual's attendance as a student (3)peer-graded papers before they are collected and recorded by a teacher

• Personally identifiable information--Student's name, student's parent or other family members, address of student or family, personal identifiers (such as ssn, student id number, biometric record, date of birth, place of birth, mother's maiden name, other information that a reasonable person in the school community, who does not have personal knowledge of the relevant circumstances, to identify the student with reasonable certainty, 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.

• De-Identified Records--The process of removing identifiable information from an education record in order to release the education record for research purposes (releases of de-identified information for the purpose of educational research may not contain information that can be aggregated in such a manner as to reveal the identities of students).

• School Officials Exception--School officials who have a legitimate educational interest in receiving the information may obtain personally identifiable information without the student's written consent.

• Outsourcing--Using contractors, consultants, volunteers, and other outside third-party agents to perform functions that would otherwise use employees to perform (who are under direct control of institution with respect to the use and maintenance of the education records and are subject to the same conditions governing the use and redisclosure of education records that apply to other school officials).

• Opt-Out Duration--Requests to "opt-out" of directory disclosures will be honored even after the student no longer attends the institution (request must have been made while in attendance; institution is not required to honor a request that the student rescinded). 

• Students may not opt out of disclosures to prevent student's name, e-mail address, or other identifiers in a class in which the student is enrolled.

• Confirming Directory Information--Social Security numbers will not be used to identify students when disclosing or confirming directory information, unless the student has provided written consent.

• Requests for directory information that include ssn will not be honored unless the student has given written permission; if the record can be located without using the ssn, the institution will inform the party that ssn was not used and that the institution does not confirm the accuracy of the ssn supplied with the request.

• Reasonable methods will be taken to reduce access to Education Records.

• Student records will not be transferred to another school without student's written permission or proof (copy of application) that the student seeks to attend or is currently attending the other institution.

• Students who are the subject of a facially valid ex parte court order issued under the USA Patriot Act will not be notified of the release of student's education records.

• If third parties improperly re-disclose personally identifiable information obtained from the institution, they will not be permitted to access information from education records for a period of not less than five years.

• Education records are provided to organizations to conduct research on behalf of the university; however, the organization must sign a written agreement stating that they will comply with privacy laws (when possible information will be de-identified and direct identifiers will be removed).

• The institution will reasonably authenticate that the recipient of personally identifiable information is who they purport to be (name, date of birth, SSN, and student ID number are not considered reasonable).

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