Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

You need to be familiar with the FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) passed in 1974 that not only allows parents and students access to information a school is keeping on students, but also that requires student consent of any public disclosure of information about the student: their names, any course enrollment records or schedules, their grades, or their papers/exams.

It also outlaws including information such as students’ ID and social security number, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, religion, or GPA in directories or any publicly-accessible document, for example, wikis or blogs to which the public has access. If students believe that the privacy rights have been violated by public disclosure without their consent, they can file a written complaint with the Family Policy Compliance Office in the U.S. Department of Education if they believe information has been disclosed without their consent or withheld from review.

Because wiki writing involves public sharing of student work with other students, you should consult your district or college about their FERPA policies related to informing students and/or having them sign a waiver form. It is therefore important to employ pass-word protection for all classroom wikis, particularly if you are evaluating student work which could be changed or compromised by others on a public-access wiki. It is also important to inform students about the issues with sharing private information on what are public documents.

One option may include stating in writing in your syllabus that as students in your course that they agree to waive their rights granted under FERPA specially related to publicly sharing their collaborative writing (this waiver does not refer to other privacy aspects such as public disclosure of grades or your evaluation of students, something that you should not incorporate into blogs or wikis) (Byron, 2006). You also should not disclose a list of students’ names in your class on a blog or wiki. The district may also have a waiver form that students would need to sign, for example, if you include students’ names (use first names only) on a blog or wiki that is available to the public.

Byron, M. (2006). Teaching with Tiki. Retrieved October 24, 2006, from http://mbyron.philosophy.kent.edu/pubs/tiki.pdf