2014-15-Undergraduate-Catalog

Academic Policies • 61Parental Rights Under FERPAParental access rights under FERPA can be summarized as follows: At the postsecondarylevel, parents have no inherent rights to inspect their student’s educational records; the rightto inspect is limited solely to the student. When a student reaches the age of 18 or beginsattending a school beyond the high-school level, regardless of age, FERPA rights transferfrom the parent to student. SU may release student information to parents only if:• The student provides written consent by completing the Consent to Release EducationRecords form and submitting it to the Registrar’s Office. This form will be kept as part oftheir permanent record.• The student is claimed as a dependent for federal income tax purposes. The parentwould need to provide the registrar with a certified copy of their most recent FederalIncome Tax Form verifying the student’s dependency status.• There is a health or safety emergency.• The student is under 21 and has violated an SU rule related to alcohol or controlledsubstances.If parents have their student’s written consent for access, or if the student can be claimed asa dependent (as outlined above), questions about registration, final grades received, GPAs,graduation, and similar issues should be directed to the Office of the Registrar. For securitypurposes, grades cannot be provided over the telephone, by fax, or sent to a non-SU emailaddress, as these processes cannot guarantee a completely secure transmission of thestudent’s grades to the intended third parties. Also note that requests to discussinformation in the student’s educational record will require certain information to beprovided for cross-check verification.Restrictions or permissions related to the sharing of educational records extend toShenandoah alumni, as well, so any requests a student makes will remain in effect indefinitely,unless the student submits a change, in writing, to the Registrar’s Office.The information above is only a brief summary of the detailed federal law. For moreinformation, please visit http://www2.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/finrule/2008-4/120908a.pdf.Directory InformationUnder FERPA, Shenandoah may release “directory information” about students without firstobtaining student’s consent. Directory information is defined as information contained in aneducation record of a student that would not generally be considered harmful or aninvasion of privacy if disclosed. At Shenandoah, directory information includes the following:• Student name, address, telephone number and SU email address• Date and place of birth• Participation in officially recognized activities and sports; weight and height of members ofathletic teams• Major field of study, school or division, academic level and year in school, full-time/part-time status