This section is extremely important. FERPA requires that a student’s information is protected at all times. Faculty have two options: Use the D2L Brightspace Gradebook in your LMS, or keep grades on a personal gradebook or spreadsheet on your computer and communicate grades to students via telephone. It is important when communicating academic performance or grades with students via phone that you are verifying identification with that student prior. We recommend having the student verify their institutional student ID, as using DOB or SSN may be information that is readily available to the students’ parents. Faculty cannot communicate grades via email. Email is an unsecure channel and transmitting grades via email is a FERPA violation.

Urge your students to sign up for text or email notifications of grades or to download the D2L Brightspace Pulse mobile app (available on the App Store or Google Play) to easily view grades. If students are unable to access their grades in the LMS, you can email or text them your feedback and communicate their grades over the phone (again, verifying their identity first).

FERPA Information: While FERPA does not specifically prohibit a school from disclosing personally identifiable information from a student’s education records over the telephone, it does require that the school use reasonable methods to identify and authenticate the identity of parents, students, school officials, and any other parties to whom the school discloses personally identifiable information from education records. 34 CFR § 99.31(c).