Dear FERPA Professor,
I have a request from a faculty member to use data from the classes they have taught over the past few years (demographics, grades, evaluations) in research to show that certain practices they implemented improved student outcomes. This request is for both internal improvement and to publish/present externally. I have denied the request because it involves FERPA-protected data without student consent, and receiving consent at this point from all students they taught over the past several years would be impossible. How can I help this faculty member with their goal of publishing this research with a great deal of FERPA-protected data without informed consent from the students? My only thought so far is to eliminate the demographic data to make it truly anonymous.
Regards,
Mr. Durden
Dear Mr. Durden,
If the faculty member is performing this research on behalf of the University, then the exception to signed consent found at § 99.31(a)(6) of the FERPA regulations may apply. However, you are correct in that any external publication of the research must be in a de-identified format. You can find the regulations relating to the de-identification process at § 99.31(c) of the regulations.
I hope this is helpful in answering your questions. You can find the above-cited regulations on pages 160 and 162 of the 2012 AACRAO FERPA Guide.