Hello FERPA Professor,
We recently had a question come up regarding the use of texting between instructors and students. We have a policy that all official communication between the college and the student needs to be done through their institutional email account. If an instructor gives out his/her personal cell phone number and the student does the same, is there a way for us to communicate without violating FERPA regulations?
I suspect that there is not, since much like student emails, we have no guarantee that the student is the only person with access to that phone. In addition, our institution does not maintain any directory information.
Can you offer any advice on the best way to approach this situation? Do you have any idea how other institutions handle dealing with texting and FERPA compliance?
Sincerely,
Evian Rose
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Dear Evian,
Actually, the best practice is what you described at your institution – to communicate SOLEY THROUGH INSTITUTIONAL EMAIL ACCOUNTS. However, FERPA would not prohibit the use of cellular text communication between a school official and a student. The key is that it must be with the student. One way you could proceed, if you want to allow the continued use of instructor/student texting, is to have the student sign a consent form permitting the texting to the listed cell phone number. This would meet the requirements set forth in §99.30 of the FERPA regulations, which can be found on page 151 of the
2012 AACRAO FERPA Guide.
I hope this is helpful in answering your questions.
Sincerely,
The FERPA Professor
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