Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

Welcome to FERPA at BGSU

Congress passed the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA), also known as the Buckley Amendment, on August 21, 1974 to protect the privacy of student education records.  Within the context of higher education, FERPA provides students the right to review these records and prohibits unauthorized dissemination of educational information by the institution or its employees.  BGSU, like most institutions of higher education, falls under FERPA regulations and is obligated to develop policies for the protection and restricted dissemination of records related to each student’s education.

However, FERPA also affords BGSU some latitude in establishing its own policies, defining relevant terms, and conveying critical information for the health and safety of individual students and other members of the institution within the legal parameters of the Act.  When responding to an emergency, or in some cases preventing a potential emergency from occurring, health and safety issues assume priority over student education privacy rights.  

Helpful Guidelines:

Balancing Student Privacy and School Safety