Brown's FERPA Policy provides information relating to the rights of students under FERPA and the University’s policies and procedures when complying with FERPA. The Policy applies to anyone who maintains, accesses, or otherwise uses education records on behalf of the University, which includes faculty, staff, and other Brown University representatives with access to student education records as well as all students. 

The following information is reflective of the language in the FERPA Policy, but is in no way an exhaustive or complete list of your obligations under the Policy. As an employee of Brown University you are required to read, understand, and comply with the FERPA Policy.

• Third party requests for student information should always be directed to the Office of the Registrar.  

• If a student has blocked the release of their personal information (i.e. a Confidentiality flag), you may not release any information about that student. We recommend you say, "I have no information about that individual" or refer to the Office of the Registrar. 

• Never release the following without the student's written consent:
  • Personally Identifiable Information (PII) - This includes student IDs (SSN, TIN, etc.); Race/Ethnicity; Photo; etc.
  • Registration information
  • The public posting of grades either by the student's name, student number, or any other PII without the student's written permission is a violation of FERPA. This includes the posting of grades to a class/institutional website and applies to any public posting of grades in hallways and in departmental offices for all students. Fellow students should not have access to their peer's grades.
  • Internal Academic Records are used for advising purposes only and should not be shared with any third parties. Any paper copies of IARs should be secured/shredded after use.

Revised February 16, 2022