Hello FERPA Professor,
I have a question regarding a student serving on an institutional committee. This committee meets to review students who have failed courses to determine if the student needs to remediate/repeat the course, be placed on academic probation, dismissal, etc. The committee is currently composed of faculty and staff members but there is a proposal to add a student representative.
If a student representative (e.g. Class President) was added to the committee, would the students who are coming before the Committee for failures need to sign an authorization for this student to be present?
Students serve on Honor Code Council committees on a regular basis, but my concern is that the student representative would know immediately that the students had failed.
Thank you for your guidance,
Eliza Lott
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Hello Eliza,
The College can permit access to the student(s) serving on the academic probation committee so long as the conditions of the §99.31(a)(1)(i)(B) exception to signed consent are met, specifically;
A contractor, consultant, volunteer, or other party to whom an agency has outsourced institutional services or functions may be considered a school official under this paragraph provided that the outside party – (2) Is under the direct control of the agency or institution with respect to the use and maintenance of education records; and (3) Is subject to the requirements of §99.33(a) governing the use and redisclosure of personally identifiable information from education records.
You can find this language on page 159 of the 2012 AACRAO FERPA Guide. Also, it is important to note that the institution is responsible for ensuring that any student who is permitted access to education records under this exception is aware of and complies with FERPA.
I hope this is helpful in answering your question.
The FERPA Professor
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