Student Consent to Release Education Records
 
Under FERPA, students enrolled in post-secondary educational institutions are deemed to ‘own’ their educational records. These records should be treated as confidential unless prior, written, student consent has been given or disclosure falls under a permissible FERPA exception. Common FERPA exceptions include release of directory information unless explicitly prohibited by the student and disclosure to school officials with a legitimate educational interest. Currently enrolled students may prevent the release of their directory information by going to https://howdy.tamu.edu and clicking on the “My Information” icon.
 
The parents of a student claimed as a dependent for federal income tax purposes may be given access to the student’s educational records. The process by which students allow this access is through the completion of the DocuSign Certification of Dependency Form. Once the Certification of Dependency form is processed, the individuals denoted on the Certification of Dependency form can be viewed by faculty, staff, and administrators in multiple places, including the Howdy dashboard (Overview ->Biographic Information) and on the COMPASS form SOAFOLK (look for the X code with the description of “Registrar Certified Dependency”).
 
Additionally, students can provide view access to individuals through the self-service “Parent/Guardian Access” portal in Howdy. Information on setting up this access is available in the Howdy portal within the “Information about Parent/Guardian Access” tab.

There is no form that allows a parent/guardian to act on behalf of a student and/or initiate requests for a student. Information released to individuals denoted on the Certification of Dependency form is allowable, as is the student-initiated and approved self-service “Parent/Guardian Access” portal in Howdy. However, both options provide information only, not the ability for the individual accessing the information to make decisions on behalf of the student themselves.
 
Practical Implications
If a faculty, staff, or administrator is meeting with a student and a third-party(ies), either confirmation of the third-party as an individual upon with the student is dependent (see certification of dependency information above) or completion of a written student consent is necessary prior to disclosing any student education record information. The consent form should include the following: 1) what student education record information is allowable for disclosure, 2) to whom, and 3) for what purpose. The TAMU employee should maintain the consent to release documents, following the TAMUS Records Retention Policy to document the student approval of the education record release. An example student consent form for use is available on the Office of the Registrar website under “FERPA Resources and Forms”.
 
For additional FERPA information, be sure to review the Office of the Registrar site for FERPA for Faculty, Staff, and Administrators.

Individuals within the Office of the Registrar are available to participate in a FERPA question and answer session for any department or college faculty or staff meeting. To make arrangements, please call 979-845-1711 or submit a request to ferpa@tamu.edu.
 
If you have a topic that you are interested in being explored in a future Friday Fun with FERPA, please email ferpa@tamu.edu. Alternatively, you can submit an anonymous form with topic ideas HERE.