The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects student privacy. Students employed by the University of Chicago must comply with FERPA.
Practically speaking, what this means is that students in teaching roles—including lectureships, preceptorships, teaching assistantships, graders, tutors, and other instructional positions— must take care to protect the privacy of the students they are teaching.
Examples of what to do and not to do when in a teaching role in order to be in compliance with FERPA are highlighted below. Students with questions about FERPA may consult the Office of the University Registrar or contact their dean of students.
- Communicate directly with individual students. Do not use other students to relay information regarding attendance, academic performance, assignments, personal matters, or other sensitive information.
- Safeguard student information. All documents and other data relating to students should be securely stored with appropriate access controls. When returning grades and academic assignments, do not post grades by student name or ID where other students will have access to the information. Exams, papers, and other graded material containing personally identifiable student information should be returned directly to the student by the instructor, TA, or an appropriate staff member in a department office.
- Be careful screen-sharing. Make sure you don’t have any students’ information visible on your screen when you are presenting (even in browser tabs or open documents) and consider signing out of email and any messaging apps so private communications don’t pop up.
- Do not share any information about students with third parties, or with colleagues who do not have a legitimate educational interest in the information. A University employee has a legitimate educational interest in a student’s information if they need the information in order to perform their professional responsibilities. While it might be appropriate to discuss a grade or progress report with faculty or other teaching assistants in the same course, you should never share identifying information about your students with friends, family, or others. This restriction also applies to inquiries about a student’s grade or performance from a third party including but not limited to the student’s family, a prospective employer, or a journalist.
- The obligation to protect student information doesn’t end when the teaching position ends. Even after you have finished teaching a student, information about the student, including grades, classroom performance, and other personal information, is still protected by FERPA.
- Disclosure of information that is otherwise protected by FERPA is allowed in a health or safety emergency if that disclosure is necessary to protect an individual student or others. If you are concerned about the health, safety, or wellbeing of a student, please contact the student’s Dean of Students, your Dean of Students, the Dean-on-Call (available 24/7), or UCPD.