As a general rule, under the
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA),
personally identifiable information may not be
released from a student's education records without
his or her prior written consent. Exceptions to
this rule set out in the FERPA regulations and the
FERPA policy of Rockingham Community College.
RCC will disclose
personally identifiable information from the
education records of a student, without the
student’s prior written consent, to officials of
another school or school system in which the student
seeks or intends to enroll. RCC will also disclose
personally identifiable information from an enrolled
student’s education records, without the
student’s prior written consent, to officials of
another school or school system in which the student
is contemporaneously enrolled.
RCC also makes public
certain information that has been designated as
"directory information’’: the
student’s name, address, telephone listing, date
and place of birth, major field of study, class,
enrollment (full-time, half-time, or part-time),
participation in officially recognized activities,
dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, and
the most recent previous educational agency or
institution attended by the student. Examples of ways
in which some of this information is made public
include: names of students who receive honors and
awards, who make the Dean’s List, or who hold
offices. The annual commencement program publishes
the names of degree recipients.
Students who do not wish to
have any or all "directory
information’’ made public without their
prior consent, must send the Records Office of
Rockingham Community College (Whitcomb Student
Center) a signed and dated notice specifying items
that are not to be published. To ensure that a
listing for the student will not be published, this
notice must be received by the Records Office by the
end of the registration period for the semester of
first enrollment or, after an absence, of
reenrollment. Such a notice will be honored until the
student graduates, ceases to attend, or withdraws
from RCC unless the student notifies the Records
Office to the contrary in writing.
Students also have the
right to inspect their "education
records’’ as defined in the FERPA
regulations. They may not inspect financial records
and statements of their parents; confidential letters
of recommendation placed in their education records
before January 1, 1975 (with some exceptions); or
confidential letters of recommendation placed in
their education records after January 1, 1975, if
they have waived their rights to inspect and review
such letters.
A student who believes that
information in his or her education records is
inaccurate or misleading or violates his or her
privacy or other rights may request that the
institution amend the records, and, if the request is
denied, he or she has the right to a hearing. If,
after the hearing, the institution decides that the
information is not inaccurate, misleading, or
violative of privacy or other rights, the student has
a right to place a statement in those records
commenting on the information in question or giving
the student’s reasons for disagreeing with the
institutional decision. The student may also place
such a statement in his or her records in lieu of
requesting a hearing. Complaints alleging violations
of FERPA rights may also be filed with the U.S.
Department of Education.
Questions about FERPA
should be addressed to the Director of Enrollment
Management in the Whitcomb Student Center. The text
of FERPA and its regulations and the Rockingham
Community College FERPA policy are also available for
inspection in the Records Office of the Whitcomb
Student Center.
Site Updated August 28,
2001.
