FERPA and Social Media

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that affords parents the
right to have access to their children’s education records, the right to seek to have the records
amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable
information from the education records. When a student turns 18 years old, or enters a
postsecondary institution at any age, the rights under FERPA transfer from the parents to the
student (“eligible student”).

•Name

Directory •Address
•Phone Number
•Email Address

Information •Date of Birth - not included at MIT

•Course
•Dates of Attendance

• Directly related to a student

Educational • Maintained by an educational agency or institution
or by a party acting for the agency or institution
Record

some medical treatment records

Does law enforcement unit records

not some employment records

include records created or received AFTER individual is no longer a student and are not directly related

observations or personal knowledge

Where does social media come in?

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Remember, to be considered an “educational record”

according to FERPA it must meet these two criteria:

1. Directly related to a student

2. Maintained by an educational agency or institution
Email Digital
or by a party acting for the agency or institution

Video/Audio Computer
Tape Generated

•Public or private groups

•Comments to and from students
Facebook •Direct messaging students

•Photos or videos of students

•Comments to and from students
Instagram •Direct messaging students

•Photos or videos of students

•Comments to and from students
Twitter •Direct messaging students

•Direct messaging apps: Slack, WhatsApp, etc.

•Tumblr
Other •Future platforms where SA pros will be interacting with students

It depends…

• Are online platforms maintained by educational agencies or

institutions?
• Where do department and institute funded items (tangible
and intangible) come in? References:
• Are student groups and organizations included in FERPA? US Dept. of Education
• Are we documenting communications?
Office of the General Counsel
We are left with more questions than answers about what constitutes
educational records. Inside Higher Ed