FERPA Compliance Requirements
In order to ensure that we, as a college, remain fully compliant with FERPA regulations, we must take the following two steps regarding student information.
Annual notification
Cornell College must notify current students annually in writing of their rights under FERPA.
- Right to seek amendment or correction of educational records.
- Right to have some control over the disclosure of information from education records except when release is permitted by law.
- Right to file complaints with the Family Policy Compliance Office, United States Department of Education, within 180 days of violation.
- Since Cornell College has a policy of disclosing personally identifiable information to school officials:
- The criteria for determining school officials
- A description of what constitutes a legitimate educational interest or need to know.
The Registrar’s Office communicates directly with incoming students about their need to complete Student Information Sharing before they are fully enrolled and communicates with current students every spring to remind them of their rights and offer them the opportunity to update their settings. Students can update Student Information Sharing at any time while they are enrolled and are expected to update their information each year prior to registration.
Adhere to student-defined access permissions
- Grant access by students or parents/guardians, if applicable, to education records
- Students and former students have the right to inspect and review their education records through established procedures
- Must be executed within 45 days of receipt of written request
- Institution or agency is not required to provide a copy of the education record unless failure to do so would deny access
- Records cannot be destroyed if a request is pending
- Fees can be charged unless cost prohibits access
- Students and former students have the right to review records of requests for disclosure of their personally identifiable information. We must maintain records of such requests and make them available to students
- A record of disclosure is not required to document disclosure to:
- a student or parent
- a school official with a legitimate educational interest
- an individual to whom the student provides written consent for disclosure
- an individual providing a lawfully issued subpoena
- an individual requesting directory information
It is the responsibility of everyone on campus who has access to or handles student information that we adhere to the permissions they set in Student Information Sharing. Always look up a student's FERPA release status before sharing their information.