FERPA and eCampus Policy

As members of Higher Education, we understand the importance of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). As an eCampus instructor, you should take caution when dealing with student information online and via email. A few quick tips are:

• You should NEVER use the discussion area to discuss individual student status or grades (i.e. “Hey Samantha, thanks for your input on Lesson 2, but you didn’t do a thorough job on Lesson 1. Please know that your grade will be lowered by this . . .”).
• Do not send a mass email to a number of students stating their status in a way that they can see each others’ email address or names (i.e. using “CC” or “To” instead of “BCC” to enter their address, or listing their names within the email message).
• Never encourage students to provide their social security numbers or student ID's within the course postings. Students should not be able to connect any student numbers with names; especially if, later on, you decide to post some information or class status based on student ID numbers.
• Do not discuss - either through email, in person, or on the phone – student progress or concerns for the student with their parents or other family members without explicit written permission to do so; EVEN if the parent is paying tuition, etc. Click HERE to learn more about FERPA.