Another piece of federal law that impacts colleges and universities.
From ACC's website:
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) helps protect the privacy of student education records. The Act provides for the right to inspect and review education records, the right to seek to amend those records and to limit disclosure of information from the records. The intent of the legislation is to protect the rights of students and to ensure the privacy and accuracy of education records. It is intended that students’ rights be broadly defined and applied. Therefore, consider the student as the “owner” of his or her education record, and the institution as the “custodian” of that record.
School officials may not disclose personally identifiable information about students without their consent. However, school officials within the institution may obtain information from educational records when having a legitimate edcuational interest. School officials must take appropriate measures to protect student records stored on office computers, personal computers/laptops, office file cabinets or any other form of storage. Do not release any information about a student without checking if the student has given consent.
"If in Doubt, don't give it Out!"
For more:
Wikipedia: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.
