FERPA

Overview

Annual Notification to Students of FERPA Rights

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), as amended, and Florida law afford students certain rights with respect to their education records. These rights include:

The right to inspect and review your education records within 45 days after the College receives a request for access.

  • If you want to review your records, you should submit a written request to the College Registrar or Vice President of Student Affairs, custodians of education records at Santa Fe College, identifying the records you wish to inspect. The custodian will make arrangements for access and notify you of the time and place where the records may be inspected.

The right to request an amendment to your education record if you believe it is inaccurate or misleading.

  • If you feel there is an error in your record, you should submit a written statement to a custodian of education records, clearly identifying the part of the record you want changed and why you believe it is inaccurate or misleading. The College will notify you of its decision. If the College decides not to amend the record, you will be informed of your right to a hearing and be given additional information about hearing procedures.
  • Please note: These procedures are intended to apply only to challenges to the accuracy of education records. Thus, eligible students could seek to correct an improperly recorded grade, but could not, through the hearing requested pursuant to this notice, contest whether the teacher should have assigned a higher grade because the parents or student believe that the student was entitled to a higher grade.

The right to consent to disclosure of personally identifiable information contained in your education records, except where FERPA authorizes disclosure without your consent.

  • One exception permitting disclosure without consent is disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the College in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position (including SF law enforcement unit personnel); a person or company with whom the College has contracted as its agent to provide a service instead of using College employees or officials (such as an attorney, auditor, collection agent, an enrollment or degree verification service, or a facility such as a clinical or internship site under an affiliation agreement); a person serving on the Board of Trustees; or a student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee, or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks.
  • A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibilities for the College. For example, a school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official is:
    • Performing a task that is specified in his or her position description or contract agreement,
    • Performing a task related to a student's education,
    • Performing a task related to the discipline of a student,
    • Providing a service or benefit relating to the student or student's family, such as personal counseling, job placement or financial aid
    • Maintaining the safety and security of the campus.
  • Parties who receive personally identifiable information from an education record may use the information only for the purposes for which it was disclosed and may not re-disclose it to third parties without the prior consent of the student except as permitted under FERPA.
  • The College may also disclose education records without consent to officials of another school in which a student seeks or intends to enroll upon request by the school.
  • Directory Information also may be disclosed without a student’s consent. Santa Fe College defines the following as Directory Information: a student's name, local address, telephone number, date of birth, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, and the most recent previous educational agency or institution attended by the student. Each semester, the College prepares a listing containing the name, address, and telephone number of each student enrolled. Copies of that listing are occasionally made available to companies who wish to contact SF students.
  • Any student who does not want Directory Information released must submit a Directory Information Exclusion Request to the Office of the Registrar (Building R, room 112). A directory exclusion request will remain in effect until rescinded in writing by the student. Names of students who have requested directory exclusion will not be printed in the commencement book for the graduation ceremony.
  • Current students who want to grant access to their education record information to parents or any other third party can submit an Authorization for Access to Education Records form (FERPA form) via eSantaFe. The form is available under the eSantaFe Records menu tab. Non-current students can submit a notarized FERPA Form to the Office of the Registrar at registrar@sfcollege.edu. Without written permission from the student, the parents or guardians may be granted access to a student’s records if they have certified in writing to the Office of the Registrar that the student is economically dependent upon them as defined by Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, and if they have documented this dependency by providing a copy of the previous year's income tax return transcript.
  • Please note: the College has the discretion to refuse to release a student's records to anyone other than the student.

The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the College to comply with the requirements of FERPA. 

The name and address of the office that administers FERPA is:

Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202-5901