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FERPA: Old legislation, revived awareness

By Kelly Higginson, For The Miami Student

The Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA), designed in 1974, is a federal law that all universities throughout the United States must adhere to - Miami University being one of them.

Despite the longevity of the Act itself, many students around campus do not seem to know what it means to release FERPA and whether they have waived it.

FERPA gives students the right to control the disclosure of their education records to others, inspect and review their own education records and challenge the content of their education records.

When enrolling at any university, students are asked how they want to approach FERPA. Without prior consent from the student, they have the right to request information to be disclosed to their parents, potential employers - anyone that would want to access it.

Vice President for Student Affairs Jayne Brownell said she gets calls every week with parents asking for information of their child.

"We get a lot of calls about parents asking how their students are doing and we always have to ask them whether their son or daughter have a FERPA release," Brownell said.

According to Brownell, it's becoming a national trend that students don't know they can waive their rights to their financial and judicial records.

"There are no drop-down boxes. It is for the students to have access to their own files," Brownell said. "Just like I have files for my own job to access, the students have theirs."

However, some students don't seem to know that this access is granted to them. Sophomore Maggie Dankmyer hadn't heard about her FERPA rights until her parents had called her asking for access to her grades.

"I had no idea I had even permitted my parents access to my grades," Dankmyer said. "I think it's one of those things where students register for Miami and they skim through all the details without really knowing what they are agreeing to."

Brownell said there are students on both sides of the spectrum - ones that don't want their parents to access their files, and ones that want their parents to have full access because they don't want to deal with it themselves.

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"I see too many students that just leave it to their parents, and their parents - instead of going to the student - will call the school directly," Brownell said.

Sophomore Natalie Cofield remembers filling out the FERPA only a short year ago when registering at Miami.

"I read everything and specifically chose to manage and see everything but my grades," Cofield said. "I will share my grades with [my parents] when I'm done, but I don't like them nagging on me."

FERPA also mandates record retention policy that is specific to each file. This is a system that is enforced by the government, enforcing universities to hold certain files for a certain period of time.

"Let's say you apply to medical school and they need certification information," Brownell said. "According to our record retention policy, we hold on to those for a certain amount of years - but it really depends on the file."

While FERPA takes affect when students are 18 or enter college, there is an exception if a student is still a dependent for tax purposes. Therefore, if parents submit their tax return showing that they claim a student as a dependent, they can access their student's records without the student completing the FERPA waiver.

According to Brownell, it isn't common to see that happen but there are always exceptions in the law.

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