March 24, 2008

Education Department Proposes New Student-Privacy Rules

The U.S. Department of Education proposed new rules on student privacy today that would clarify when colleges can release student information in the interest of health and safety. The proposed changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 would also give greater flexibility to college administrators in making such decisions.

The Education Department does not appear to be staking out new policy ground, but rather clarifying its longstanding belief that colleges have flexibility in balancing safety and student privacy. The proposed changes are similar to guidelines the department published in October in the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech.

Specifically, the proposed regulations state that educational institutions must be able to articulate a significant threat before releasing student information that is typically protected under Ferpa. And institutions must only disclose information to people who need it in order to respond to the threat.

But the rules say that the department will defer to institutions’ decisions, so long as the institutions have a rational basis for their determinations.

“In short,” the regulations read, “in balancing the interests of safety, privacy, and treatment, the Secretary proposes to revise the regulation to specify legal standards, but to couple those standards with greater flexibility and deference to administrators so they can bring appropriate resources to bear on a circumstance that threatens the health or safety of individuals.” —Elyse Ashburn

Comments

1. There is more than clarification going on in these rules … there are some actual changes in policy.

   — Dave    Mar 24, 12:55 PM    #

2. Yes, Harry, the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts.

   — Paul    Mar 24, 03:50 PM    #

3. Don’t like the privacy laws then just change the meaning. No need for congressional approval. Totally Bushy

   — GregO    Mar 24, 07:56 PM    #

4. Don’t like the privacy laws then just change the meaning. No need for congressional approval. Totally Bushy

   http://jivagrey.blogspot.com/

   — GregO    Mar 24, 07:58 PM    #

5. FERPA isn’t the problem and colleges and universities can only look to themselves for allowing this issue to engender the involvement of the DOE. For too long, FERPA has been used as an excuse by the various fiefdoms within the ivory tower to balkanize themselves through the pettiness of imposing specious control over information, all at the expense of those who deserve our best shared collaboration for their success, our students. As a college registrar at a major research institution in the 1990’s and with the emergence of IT, I saw how collaboration and common sense over student information, both academic and personal became eroded as groups hid behind grossly inappropriate interpretations of FERPA to not share information as a means to gain organizational power through the closing of those communication and information pathways. To be sure, academe has always had its turf wars and departmentalization. However, I, and others, were witnesses to a time when there was leadership within our institutions to keep the eye on the real prize and to leverage the shared cross-institutional resources to keep the student and their best interests in clear focus. Whether the student was aligned with my college or not, I had a strong understanding that we were all part of the University, and as such, we needed to act as a University and respect each other’s intelligence and professionalism in dealing with the very real and compelling issues that face young people in their teens and twenties as they navigate their way to adulthood and a working life in society. Information is power and that power should be leveraged to help students, not help to create and maintain the divisions within the institution. FERPA absolutely permits cross-institutional sharing of information and always has. It’s unfortunate that as IT has made information more readily available cross-institutionally, the worst characteristics of higher education organizational dynamics have warped FERPA as a justification for closing those portals to information.

   — MaryF    Mar 25, 08:53 AM    #

6. At this very moment my family and I are struggling to gain access to my son, a freshman in a private NY college who has, in the past four months, undergone a dramatic change in personality. We have navigated a bureaucratic and hostile process to get him to campus counseling and as soon as he had a session we were informed—in the most insensitive, unkind manner—by the very person we sought as an ally, the VP of Student Affairs, that we were no longer allowed to ask for or receive any more information about him. She then allowed him to put us on the Persona Non Grata list without disclosing the reasons why, we had not violated any rules or regulations, or how we could dispute it. By doing so she not only enabled him to isolate himself further, but lost an opportunity to teach him how to resolve problems with communication. My son has become increasingly socially withdrawn and isolated. The school maintains they did a psych eval and he is not presenting a harm to himself or others. However, after having several close family members try and visit him it is clear beyond a doubt he has undergone a severe change. Here is a previously social and gregarious kid who from one second to the next became a complete loner, and a college so worried about FERPA that they will do anything to convince themselves that he is not exhibiting behavior harmful to himself. Are they actually waiting for an act of violence? FERPA has indeed warped the value system colleges purport to instill in students. The mission statement of this college is to create ethical and socially responsible global leaders. How can they do that when their representatives and administrators are so ethically and socially irresponsible.

   All we wanted to do was get him help and be a part of the process to get him back in touch with his family. We have been criminalized and were completely shut out of his life. We finally involved the President in our frustrations and threatened to go public. He got the VP to reluctantly start talking with us but in the meantime over three months have gone by and he only has one month left. She didn’t disclose the PNG dispute process until specifically asked.

   Our son remains out of touch with everyone in his life, friends and family, not just parents. The school has placed the observations of professors and advisors who have brief contact with him and have only “known” him since September, above those of family members—people who really love him and know him. Is this protecting someone’s privacy? FERPA has justified a college to become blind to the pain and suffering of one of their students and his entire family. Not only is the college blind but it keeps twisting the screws that will eventually cause a possible mental breakdown in a wonderful human being who chose their school for the values and commitment to their community that they so eloquently outlined in all of their literature. It was a false claim.

   — ccbb    Mar 30, 02:19 PM    #

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