INFORMATION FOR
A federal law designed to protect the privacy of education records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their education records, and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate and misleading data through informal and formal hearings.
Any individual who is officially registered and has attended a William Paterson University class, regardless of their age or the class location, or who has been officially registered and attended in the past, and about whom the university maintains education records.
A person who has applied for admission but has never been in attendance at the university.
A current student has a right to block the release of their directory information by notifying the University via email. However, doing so can have negative consequences you should be aware of:
Students play an important role in maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of their education records and are encouraged to take the following steps to ensure safety and security:
FERPA allows the people from the following list to access student records without written consent:
William Paterson University expects that students will respect the rights of faculty and other students who participate in the educational process. These guidelines will help ensure the privacy of other students:
Per the Solomon Amendment, institutions of higher education are required to provide "student recruiting information" for all students who are at least seventeen (17) years of age and enrolled for at least one credit hour at their institution to military recruiters. Please note that the Solomon Amendment supersedes FERPA and even if a university has a policy of not releasing directory information it must comply with requests for student recruiting information.
William Paterson University defines school officials as the following:
We recognize that parents provide a great deal of financial and emotional support to their children while they are students at William Paterson University. However, we must balance this recognition with the fact that students have legal rights that must be fully respected. Once your dependent attends a university class, you no longer have an automatic right to access their education records, no matter the student's age. Instead, the access rights transfer to your dependent. We cannot discuss your student's information without the written consent of the student.
FERPA requires the student’s written consent before we can release education records to parents. Your student can login to Self-Service to show you the records, or complete the FERPA Authorization Form to allow us to speak to you about the records.
The university’s policy regarding communication with parents applies equally to students who are minors. When a student attends a William Paterson University class, regardless of the student’s age or the class location, rights under FERPA transfer to the student.
Grades are not sent to parents. Your dependent can show you their grades by logging in to Self-Service.
Students can log in to Self-Service for an Enrollment Verification. Please be aware that if the student has requested a Directory Information Release Block, the verification cannot be fulfilled.
With certain exceptions, education records are all records relating to a student that are maintained by the university. Education records include any record, file, document, email or other material (handwritten, digital, photographic, etc.) which contains information directly related to a student such as a student's academic progress, financial information, medical condition, personal interest item or student worker information.
Information that would directly identify the student or make the student's identity easily traceable, including, but not limited to:
Directory information is data that is generally not considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if released. It may be disclosed to outside organizations without a student's prior written consent unless a student has informed the university that he or she wishes to restrict the release by emailing Student Enrollment Services (studentservices@wpunj.edu).
William Paterson University considers the following as “directory information” and will release the following student information upon request:
When a school official is performing a task that is specified in their position description or contract, or when there is a demonstrated "need to know" by those school officials who act in the student's educational interest.