FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.

Federal and state law provide students with the following rights with respect to their education records:

• to inspect and review;
• to consent to disclosure to third parties, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent;
• to request amendment to ensure education records are not inaccurate or misleading;
• to be notified of his/her privacy rights under FERPA; and
• to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by UTMB to comply with FERPA requirements.

Directory information may appear in public documents and may be disclosed without student consent unless a student submits a written request to restrict the information as confidential.

UTMB designates the following information as directory information:

1. student’s name (including previous names);
2. campus phone number;
3. campus address;
4. email address;
5. student pictures (if applicable);
6. previous institution(s) attended;
7. major field of study;
8. dates of attendance;
9. degree(s) and date(s) conferred (including degrees from previous institutions);
10. honors and awards;
11. participation in officially recognized activities; and
12. postgraduate training site (for M.D. and Ph.D. graduates).

The full UTMB FERPA policy can be found in the General Information Catalog and in the Institutional Handbook of Operating Procedures (IHOP Policy, 07.01.30).

For more information about FERPA, visit https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

Click here for instructions for updating your FERPA setting in mySTAR.