Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

A few definitions…that give some other information:

Attendance (for FERPA purposes only, which is different than the Federal Financial Aid definition) is any situation in which students attend class (physically or by videoconference, satellite, Internet, or other electronic information and telecommunications technologies). Once a student attends a class, his or her education records are protected by FERPA.
Directory Information is any information that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. Students can opt out of disclosure of directory information by filling out a form with the Registrar’s office. If this form is on file in the Registrar’s Office, the student’s record will be marked confidential and any and all inquiries about the student will be met with a response similar to, “I have no record of that person.” However, this non-disclosure of directory information is voided if the directory information is to be used for a legitimate educational interest (see definition below).
Post-enrollment Records are any records that only contain information about an individual after he or she is no longer a student at that institution such as fundraising and similar records related to alumni. These records are not protected by FERPA. However, records that pertain to an individual’s previous attendance as a student are “education records” and are protected under FERPA regardless of when they were created or received.
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) refers to any data contained in an education record that, if disclosed alone or together with other data, would allow a reasonable person to reasonably identify the student to whom the record belongs. PII includes direct personal identifiers (student name, SSN or student number, biometric records, etc.) as well as indirect identifiers (names of the student’s family members, the student’s or family’s address, personal characteristics, date and place or birth, or other information that would make the student’s identity easily traceable). PII must not be released without written consent of the student.
Legitimate Educational Interest is the only reason a University employee has for inspecting a student’s educational record. Legitimate educational interest is a need for information to fulfill professional responsibilities toward a student or the University not to satisfy mere curiousity.

Random bits of information…

Although a student opts out of directory information disclosure, it does not prevent an institution from identifying a student by name or from disclosing a student’s electronic identifier or institutional email address in class. In essence, an opt-out does not mean anonymity in class and may not be used to impede routine classroom (physical or electronic) communications and interactions.
Although “sole possession” notes are not education records and thus are not protected by FERPA, these notes can lose their “sole possession” status if:

The maker of the notes is replaced mid-year and the notes are passed on to the replacement (unless the replacement is a temporary substitute for the original maker of the notes, then the sole possession status carries).
The maker of the notes leaves them where they can be accessed or revealed to someone other than the maker (such as on an unprotected computer or in an unlocked filing cabinet).
The maker of the notes shares them with another school official.

An education agency or institution may disclose an education record of a student in attendance to another educational agency or institution if the student is enrolled in or receives services from the other agency or institution and the agency or institution makes a reasonable attempt to notify the parent or eligible student at the last known address, gives the parent or eligible student, upon request, a copy of the record that was disclosed, and gives the parent or eligible student, upon request, an opportunity for a hearing.
Documents such as event calendars, course outlines and syllabi, and catalogs that do not contain personally identifiable information about a student are not covered by FERPA. Therefore, if a student requests to inspect a course syllabus as part of his/her education record, the request can be denied because that document is not an education record for the purposes of FERPA.