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Organizational Membership

Connect to the world of higher education

With AACRAO membership you'll be connected to more than 11,000 members from institutions around the world. Facilitate your professional development by attending discounted meetings, gaining complimentary subscriptions to our College & University journal and more.

Why should you join? State higher education coordinating boards, higher education associations, accrediting bodies and international ministries of education and more can collaborate with our members and lend their voices to discussions about practices in the field. 

Annual Membership Price: $710

Requirements: YOU MUST BE A PUBLIC SECTOR AND/OR A PRIVATE NON-PROFIT ASSOCIATION WHOSE INTERESTS ARE CLOSELY ALIGNED TO AACRAO.  

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Professional Competencies

Work on your skills like change management, technical knowledge and professional development and contributions to the field. We have the tools for you.

Online Learning

Strategic enrollment management. Admissions & recruitment. Transfer & articulation.  AACRAO regularly partners with organizations to hold joint discussions. No matter what your focus is, our webinars are loved by our members, and can raise the profile of your work. 

Take the next step in your career

AACRAO's Career Navigator is a wealth of job postings and resources for training. 

Gain Recognition

Intl Students - Recognition


Get Published

AACRAO's professional journals College & University and SEM Quarterly are always accepting articles and have a wide circulation base.

Research Opportunities

Leverage the expertise of our over 11,000 members and contribute to one of the premier sources of practice related research within the global higher education community. 

Join a committee

Do work you're passionate about, with support and mentoring from fellow members. From Caucuses to specialized topics, it's all one community, no matter where in the world your institution is located. 


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AACRAO's bi-weekly professional development e-newsletter

Ask the FERPA Professor

Sep 8, 2020, 09:49 AM
legacy id :
Summary : Can an electronic signature be used for FERPA releases?
Url :

Dear FERPA Professor:

I am writing to double-check -- must we use a wet signature for FERPA releases? Because of COVID 19, there are  a lot of forms that used to be wet signatures that are now allowed to be signed electronically. 

Thank you for clarification, and I hope you're doing well during these strange times.

Otto Graf 

______________________________________________________________________

Dear Otto:

Thank you for the inquiry. As you know, §99.30 of the FERPA regulations require that a student provide a signed, dated, written consent before an institution discloses information from the student's education record, unless the disclosure meets the specific conditions of one the exceptions to signed consent found in §99.31. 

However, §99.30(d) permits an institution to accept an electronic consent, but it also requires that the institution know that the electronic signature authenticates the identity of the student. Thus, electronic signatures would generally be established by the institution, not by an outside party where the institution may not know what, if any, authentication process exists.  If the College provides the email service for the students, it could always suggest/require that the student email through the official College account, permission to accept the document(s), thus providing the required authentication.

You can find the electronic signature regulations in Appendix J of the 2012 AACRAO FERPA Guide, starting on page 353.  The referenced "safe harbor" language in the regulations, which is based on the FSA standards, can be found on page 360.  The other regulations cited above can be found starting on page 159 of the Guide.

I hope the above is helpful in answering your question, and that you are also weathering these challenging times safely.

Sincerely,

The FERPA Professor 

September 9 Coffee Break: The FERPA Professor is In Join FERPA Professor Leroy Rooker and friends to talk through some of the latest FERPA quandaries that this COVID life has brought to your desk.

Register now for Registrar 101 Online September 14 - October 17

2020 FERPA Quick Guide

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  • FERPA
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  • FERPA Professor
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Questions? Contact us at membership@aacrao.org or (202) 355-1040