FERPA – the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as amended – is a federal law that governs the privacy of student educational records, access to those records, and disclosure of information from them. More information about FERPA can be found on the Department of Education website.
UW-Madison’s FERPA overview can be found here: https://registrar.wisc.edu/ferpa_overview.htm
The DOs for Faculty & Staff
- DO refer requests for information from the educational record of a student to the proper education record custodian: The Registrar’s Office.
- DO keep only those individual student records necessary for fulfillment of your teaching and advising responsibilities.
- DO keep any personal professional records relating to individual students separate from their educational records. Private notes of a faculty/staff member concerning a student intended for the member’s own use are not part of the student’s educational records.
The DON’Ts for Faculty & Staff
- DO NOT display student scores or grades publicly in association with names, SSN, Campus IDs or other personal identifiers.
- DO NOT put papers, graded exam books or lab reports containing student names and grades in publicly accessible places. Students are not to have access to the scores and grades of others in the class in ways that allow other students to be identified.
- DO NOT request information from the educational record information, including grades or GPAs with other faculty or staff members unless their official responsibilities identify their “legitimate educational interest” in that information for that student.
- DO NOT share information from student educational records, including grades or GPA’s with parents or others outside the institution, including letters of recommendation, without written permission from the student.
- DO NOT allow students to grade each other’s work when the score will be recorded.