Student Records Privacy Policy (FERPA)
Purpose
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 as amended in 1995 and 1996, with which the New School complies, is a federal law that was enacted to protect the privacy of student educational records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their education records, and to provide guidelines for correction of inaccurate or misleading statements.
Scope
FERPA applies to all current and former students of the university.
All university employees (including student employees) who have contact with education records are required by law to maintain the confidentiality of these records.
Policy
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act has four primary rights, summarized below:
The right to inspect and review the student's education records within 45 days of the day the university receives a request for access.
The right to request the amendment of the student's education records that the student believes are inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student's privacy rights under FERPA.
The right to provide written consent before the university discloses personally identifiable information ("directory information") from the student's education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.
The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the university to comply with the requirements of FERPA.
Additional information, including guides for students and parents, may be found on our website.
Procedure
While enrolled, a student may request that the institution not release directory information about himself or herself. Institutions must comply with this request. At The New School, students who wish to restrict the release of directory information about themselves must notify the Registrar’s Office in writing. This notification must be renewed annually at the start of each fall semester.
All staff must employ reasonable measures to preserve the confidentiality, security, and integrity of New School information systems and the information contained therein. All New School staff should practice appropriate security measures:
Never disclose, share, or loan your username(s) and password(s) to anyone (e.g., another employee, faculty member, supervisor, or student assistant).
Never disclose confidential student information to university personnel unless they have a legitimate educational interest. Disclosure without such need violates the federal law as well as New School regulations.
In addition, staff should take reasonable measures to restrict unauthorized persons from viewing confidential academic record information. For example, you should:
Never leave your computer workstation unattended while signed on without appropriate screen locking (e.g., a password-protected screen saver).
Never leave personal log-on information (e.g., username, password, or network mapping) in view of unauthorized persons.
Never program (or hot-key) automatic access to confidential academic record systems.
Never download student data to a flash drive, send files to a personal email account, or store student data on an unencrypted, unsecured server.
If you must email student data to another person or office at The New School, either use the New School Secure File Transfer System or share the information through a Google Doc.
Additional Information
Training
Employees are required to complete the online FERPA Tutorial before they can access student records.
Questions
Contact the Registrar's Office with any questions related to this policy via this form or by emailing reghelp@newschool.edu.