The Details | Background | Definitions | Rights | Exceptions
When is a “student” a student
When students are under the age of 18 and are attending grade school and high school, FERPA rights rest with their parents or guardians. When a student turns 18 or enters a post-secondary school like Northwestern University, FERPA rights reside with him or her. A student is defined as a person who is currently attending or has attended Northwestern University in the past.
What is NOT education record information
Education records include all information that:
- is directly related to a student AND
- is maintained by an educational institution.
Here are some examples of things that are NOT education records:
- Statistical data with no mention of personally identifiable information.
- Information that is not recorded anywhere, like personal knowledge or observation.
- Private records called “sole possession” records kept by professors or advisors that are not accessible by anyone else, for example, private records stored in a private office. (However, if that professor is a faculty advisor and enters his personal notes into a shared electronic database or files them in a common space in his department where someone else could access them, the notes become part of the student’s education record.)
- Records of former students created after the student is no longer enrolled at the University – an example would be donor records of alumni.