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Office of the Registrar

FERPA Guidelines for Faculty & Staff

Faculty and staff members play a key role in the protection and integrity of student records. It is incumbent upon them to maintain, report and make available information included in student educational records in compliance with the requirements of FERPA and the Student Records Policy.

FERPA Training

FERPA Training, (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974), is required for all faculty, staff, and student employees accessing student data as part of their work duties.

A score of 60% or more is required for successful completion of the training. Successful completion is tracked and then reported in the Training Summary area of HRIS, normally within 24 hours. A score of less than 60% will not be reported to HRIS as a completion.

TAKE THE FERPA TRAINING ⇒ https://k-state.instructure.com/enroll/DGHRYN

FERPA and Merging Sections in CANVAS

Guidelines for Faculty & Staff

  1. Requests for information from the educational record of a student should be referred to the proper educational record custodian.
  2. Private notes of a faculty/staff member concerning a student and intended for the faculty/staff member's own use are not part of the student's educational record, provided they are kept separate from the student's educational records. Only those individual student records that are necessary to fulfill professional responsibilities should be kept. Private records of faculty/staff and ancillary educational personnel are to be kept in the sole possession of the maker and are not to be accessible or revealed to any other person, except a substitute.
  3. Requests for information from the educational record custodian must not be made without a legitimate educational interest and the appropriate authority to do so.
  4. Student scores or grades may not be displayed publicly in association with names, social security numbers or other personal identifiers. Some other code known only to the instructor and the individual student may be used to post grades/scores.
  5. All papers or lab reports containing student names and grades should be secured. Students should not have access to the scores and grades of others in the class.
  6. Factual information regarding grades and performance in an educational record may be amended when the student is able to provide valid documentation that information is inaccurate or misleading. 
  7. Student educational record information is not to be shared, including grades or grade point averages, with other faculty or staff members of the University unless their official responsibilities identify their "legitimate educational interest" in that information for that student.
  8. Information from student educational records, including grades, grade point averages, and letters of recommendation should not be shared by phone or correspondence with parents or other parties outside the institution, without written permission from the student.
  9. Information from medical, psychiatric, or psychological reports; records from law enforcement officials on or off the campus; or notes of a professional or staff person which are intended for that individual alone are not to be included in a student's educational records or made available to him/her, or to a third party.
  10. FERPA enforcement may include sanctions as severe as the withholding of federal funding.

Please see the Kansas State University Student Records Policy for more on Directory Information. If you have ANY questions regarding FERPA, please contact the Office of the Registrar.