FERPA Information
for Students

The right to consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in the student’s education records, except to the extent FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.

FERPA permits the disclosure of records retained by the College as “directory information” without student consent. These items include:

Directory Information 

• student name
• College-issued email address,*
  (*Students’ email addresses are only directory information for the purpose of internal use by the UC Law SF community).
  
• major field of study,
• dates of attendance,
• degrees and honors received,
• the most recent previous educational institution attended,
• photograph**
  (**Students’ photographs are only directory information for the purpose of use in UC Law SF publications and for internal use by the UC Law SF community (students, faculty and staff)).

The Department of Defense regulations also identify these items as directory information.  However, students may refuse to permit disclosure of any or all of these categories of personally identifiable information designated as public or “directory information.”

Students may refuse to permit disclosure of personally identifiable information designated as public or “directory information” Notice of a student’s refusal to permit disclosure of directory information shall be submitted using a form posted on Sharknet.

The U.S. Comptroller General, the U.S. Attorney General, the U.S. Secretary of Education, or state education authorities (“Federal and State Authorities”) may allow access to your records and personally identifiable information without your consent to any third party designated by a Federal or State Authority to evaluate a federal-or state-supported education program. The evaluation may relate to any program that is “principally engaged in the provision of education,” as well as any program that is administered by an education agency or institution. Additionally, Federal and State Authorities may allow access to your education records and personally identifiable information without your consent to researchers performing certain types of studies, in certain cases even when the College objects to or does not request such research. Federal and State Authorities must obtain certain use-restriction and data security promises from the entities that they authorize to receive your personally identifiable information, but the Authorities need not maintain direct control over such entities. Also, in connection with Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems, State Authorities may collect, compile, permanently retain, and share without your consent personally identifiable information from your education records, and they may track your participation in education and other programs by linking such personally identifiable information to other personal information about you that they obtain from other Federal or State data sources, including workforce development, unemployment insurance, child welfare, juvenile justice, military service, and migrant student record systems.

Another exception which permits disclosure without consent is disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the College in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position (including law enforcement personnel and health staff); a person or company with whom the College has contracted (e.g., an attorney, auditor or collection agent); a person serving on the Board of Directors; or a student serving on an official committee (e.g., a disciplinary or grievance committee) or that is assisting another school official in performing his/her tasks.

A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibility.

Students may provide a written, dated consent for UC Law SF to provide personally identifiable information from that student’s educational records to third parties.

Pursuant to FERPA, certain student records are not subject to inspection and review by students. These are set forth in UC Law SF’s Policies and Procedures Applying to Privacy and Access to Educational Records and referenced below:

1. Financial records and statements of the student’s parents or guardians or any information contained therein. Information from the Parents’ Confidential Statement, or equivalent information, may be disclosed to the student on condition that the proper authorization has been signed by the parent(s) or guardian(s).
2. Confidential letters and statements of recommendation which were placed in a student’s records prior to January 1, 1975, provided that the letters and statements are used only for the
   purposes for which they were specifically intended.
3. Confidential letters and statements of recommendation which were placed in a student’s records after January 1, 1975, with regard to admission, application for employment, or the receipt of an honor, if the student has waived the right to inspect and review those recommendations.
4. Records containing personally identifiable information about other students. If student records contain information on more than one student, students may inspect and review or be
   informed of only the specific information which pertains to themselves.

Students have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by University of California College of the Law, San Francisco to comply with the requirements of FERPA. 

The name and address of the Office that administers FERPA is:

Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
600 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C.   20202-4605
(202) 260-3887/(202) 260-9001 – FAX