Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as Amended

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords students certain rights with respect to their education records. These rights include:

  1. The right to inspect and review the student's education records within 45 days of the day the College receives a request for access.

    A student should submit to the registrar, dean, head of the academic department, or other appropriate official, a written request that identifies the record(s) the student wishes to inspect. The College official will make arrangements for access and notify the student of the time and place where the records may be inspected. If the records are not maintained by the College official to whom the request was submitted, that official shall advise the student of the correct official to whom the request should be addressed.

  2. The right to request the amendment of the student's education records that the student believes are inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student's privacy rights under FERPA.

    A student who wishes to ask the College to amend a record should write the College official responsible for the record, clearly identify the part of the record the student wants changed, and specify why it should be changed.

    If the College decides not to amend the record as requested, the College will notify the student in writing of the decision and the student's right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to the student when notified of the right to a hearing.

  3. The right to provide written consent before the College discloses personally identifiable information from the student's education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent. Some, but not all, of the exceptions are explained in this notice.

    The College discloses education records without a student's prior written consent under the FERPA exception for disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the College in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position (including campus public safety personnel and health staff, if any); a person or company with whom the College has contracted as its agent to provide a service instead of using College employees or officials (such as National Student Clearinghouse, an attorney, auditor, or collection agent); a person serving on the Board of Trustees; or a student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee, or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks. Upon request, the College also discloses education records without consent to officials of another school in which a student seeks or intends to enroll.

    A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibilities for the College.

    FERPA also allows the College to disclose appropriately designated "directory information" without written consent, unless the student has advised the College to the contrary in accordance with the procedures set forth in this notice. The primary purpose of directory information is to allow the College to include this type of information from your education records in certain school publications. Examples include:

    A playbill, showing a student's role in a drama production;

    The annual yearbook;

    Honor roll or other recognition lists; Graduation programs; and

    Sports activity sheets showing weight and height of team members.

    Directory information, which is information that is generally not considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if released, can also be disclosed to outside organizations without a student's prior written consent. If a student does not want the College to disclose directory information from the student's education records without prior written consent, the student must notify the Registrar of the campus in writing within 30 days of the issuance of this notice.

    Delaware Technical Community College defines directory information as follows:

    • Name
    • Address
    • College E-mail Address
    • Field of Study
    • Full- or Part-time Enrollment Status
    • Dates of Attendance
    • Degrees and Awards
    • Honors (President's List, Dean's List, Academic Recognition, and Honor Societies)
    • Participation in Officially Recognized Activities and
    • Sports
    • Date of Birth
    • Most Recent Previous High School Attended
    • Weight and Height of Athletes
    • Photograph*

    *Use of Student Photographs: Photographers employed or contracted by the College regularly take photographs of students to illustrate or describe various aspects of the College and campus life. These photographs will be taken at public venues such as athletic events, concerts and graduation, and/or in other organized campus photo shoots where the subjects will have given verbal consent to be photographed. Individuals who are photographed while attending a public event or who verbally agree to participate in a photo shoot will be understood to have authorized Delaware Technical Community College to use their likeness in print and electronic materials to promote the College. The College will retain the usage rights to the photographs in perpetuity.

  4. The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the College to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the Office that administers FERPA is:

    Family Policy Compliance Office

    U.S. Department of Education

    400 Maryland Avenue, SW

    Washington, DC 20202-5901