Graduate Policies and Procedures
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law enacted in 1974 to protect the privacy of student education records. The law applies to those institutions that regularly receive federal funding from the Department of Education and is enforced by the Family Policy Compliance Office of the U.S. Department of Education.
FERPA forms for students can be found at www.utdallas.edu/student/registrar/forms (click on "FERPA packet").
Complaints of alleged violations may be addressed to
Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-5920
The UT Dallas FERPA violation link is located at www.utdallas.edu/legal/ferpa.
FERPA defines an eligible student as a student who has reached 18 years of age or is attending an institution of postsecondary education.
Students have four primary rights under FERPA:
- To inspect and review their education records
- To seek to amend those education records they believe to be inaccurate or misleading
- To have some control over the disclosure of information from those education records
- To file a complaint concerning alleged failures by an institution to comply with FERPA regulations within 180 days
More information regarding education records and the procedure for amending records can be found at www.utdallas.edu/student/registrar/faq.html#FERPA.
Directory or public information is information that is not generally considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if released. Directory information includes student's full name, local and permanent address, email address, phone numbers, date and place of birth, major field of study, dates of attendance, degrees/awards/honors received, most recent previous educational agency or institution attended, enrollment status (classification, under/grad, part/full-time), participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight/height of members of athletic team, expected date of graduation, and photographs.
Non-directory information is information that is not considered to be directory information, such as enrollment records, grades, and schedules.
Student may choose to withhold release of directory information. A student may do so by completing the "Request for Confidentiality of Directory Information" form at www.utdallas.edu/student/registrar/forms (click on "FERPA packet").
More information regarding FERPA can be found at www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa.