FERPA Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (sometimes referred to as the Buckley Amendment, but more often by its acronym, FERPA) affords students certain rights concerning their education records. FERPA obliges the University of Louisville to inform students of their rights and to establish policies and procedures through which their rights can be exercised.

Students who have matriculated have the right to inspect and review most education records maintained about them by the University of Louisville, and, in many cases, decide whether or not a third party may obtain information from them. No one, not even a UofL student's parent or legal guardian, will have access to a student's education records, nor will their contents be disclosed, without the written consent of the student, except as provided by the Act. Directory information is considered public unless a student asks that some or all of that information be withheld.

FERPA, as amended, may be found at 20 U.S.C. 1232g; its final revised regulations may be found at 34 CFR 99. It is administered by the Family Policy Compliance Office of the U. S. Department of Education; for additional information, see the FPCO web site at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OM/fpco.

A UofL student's education records are those records maintained by UofL (or by a party acting for UofL) that are directly related to the student. Records containing a student's name, social security number, or other personally identifiable information, in whatever medium, unless identified in one of FERPA's excluded categories, are education records.

The University Archivist serves as the official custodian of University records. The FERPA Compliance Officer responds to all FERPA inquiries.