Office of the Registrar THE NUANCES OF FERPA

Office of the Registrar THE NUANCES OF FERPA

A little refresher… • Protects student education data (think of any data collected/maintained by the institution about a person’s time/activities as a student) • Students can: • Ask to see this data (with a few exceptions) • Ask to have data amended (if incorrect) • OSU definition of a student: when one has registered for a class or registered for START (whichever happens first) • At OSU, medical and counseling records are protected by FERPA OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 1

Joint Consent to Release Form (FERPA) • Must be fully completed • For the release of information via phone; written info releases require a form maintained solely by the office providing the written info • Receiving office will scan into NOLIJ • Does not become the mediating apparatus between a student and parent • In effect until revoked OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 2

Phone calls and FERPA • Not the student? : Fine to provide general information that does not pertain to a student’s record • If a consent to release form is on file, can provide information outlined on consent form. Ask for passcode. • If a student calls, the Ot. R uses a 3 -question verification process (gleaning information from Banner) • Asking for SSN is not permissible under FERPA OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 3

Honors Societies and FERPA • SLI outlines three types of student organizations: • Department Student Orgs (DSOs): Fully integrated into a dept. ; department support and assigned advisor • Sponsored Student Orgs (SSOs): Supported by a department, but not legally a part of OSU; professional advisor • Voluntary Student Orgs (VSOs): Not affiliated with OSU; no advisor • Data requests for these go through Dante Holloway in SLI (unless DSO advisor requests directly) OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 4

Student referrals Scenario: You have a student discussing their difficulty with a particular class; you have a student leader in your college who developed some great strategies for getting through that same class. How do you connect the students? OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 5

FERPA and Slack (or other messaging apps) Questions to consider: • Is this an app that I downloaded/access through OSU channels? • Is there an authentication process? • Is there an audit trail (aka, some way to pull the data if the student asked for their records)? • Do I need to discuss identifiable information/is the best method? OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 6

Online communities (social media) • Canvas • Facebook/Instagram • Website features OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 7

Student Workers • Student records do not include employment records unless the individual’s employment is contingent on the fact that they are also a student at that school OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 8

Confidential students and FERPA • Confidential students are marked in Banner and Online Services; in effect until revoked • Currently, <30 confidential students at OSU • Cannot conduct business over the phone; must be in person • Exception: through OSU-issued email address OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 9

FERPA Best Practices • Use Box to digitally share student information • Lock your computer screen when not in use • Delete files/emails you no longer need • If possible, avoid including ID numbers (Will just the ONID name suffice? ) • Do not send student information to non-OSU email addresses • Use confidential recycling for any documents with student information OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 10

FERPA Best Practices • FERPA only works as an opt-in, not an ‘opt-out’ • When in doubt, spell it out • Without a consent to release information, you can only talk about observations of character • Use University-issued or supported software OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 11

Open forum for questions OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY 12