The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) is a federal law that grants to students the right to inspect, to obtain copies, to challenge, and to a degree control the release of information contained in their education records. FERPA and its regulations are very lengthy. For that reason SMU has issued guidelines that are available to students in the Division of Enrollment Services. Policy 1.18 of the University Policy Manual, accessible on SMU’s Intranet, also discusses this law.

In general, no personally identifiable information from a student’s education records will be disclosed to a third party without written consent from the student. Several exceptions exist, including these selected examples: (1) Information defined by SMU as directory information may be released unless the student sends a written request to the registrar that it be withheld; (2) information authorized by student through Access.SMU Self-Service; and 3) information may be released to a parent or guardian if the student is declared financially dependent upon the parent or guardian as defined by the Internal Revenue Service Code.

If you wish to release or restrict access to your records, you must make the request through Access.SMU Self-Service or in writing. All SMU students are considered adults and must authorize release of all records to anyone, including parents. Students have the ability through Access.SMU Student Self-Service to grant parents or other individuals view access to their records. Students may fill out a form if they want their information released to a third party. Forms are available at http://www.smu.edu/registrar/forms_library.asp.

More information on FERPA is available on the Registrar’s website at http://www.smu.edu/registrar/FERPA/.