IRB: Resources & More Information

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student records.  Student education records are considered confidential and may not be released to third parties without written consent from the student.  Any education institution that receives funds under any program administered by the U.S. Secretary of Education is bound by FERPA requirements.

FERPA defines education records as records (in any format) containing any information directly related to a student and maintained by an educational institution or an agency acting for the institution.  Education records include things like:

• graded papers or assignments
• exams
• transcripts
• class rosters
• computer systems with student information

For a researcher to access student records, the Principal Investigator must obtain signed written permission from the student for the release of their records.  Please note that this may require a researcher to obtain signatures from subjects in instances where human subjects research regulations do not require signatures.  In these cases, researchers must comply with the more restrictive FERPA requirements.  The IRB does not have the authority to waive this requirement.

Researcher responsibilities regarding FERPA-protected data:

Approval to use student educational record data in research is contingent upon the researcher's agreement to the following:

• Use the information only for purposes of the approved research project.  Any new use of the information will require new approval.
• Provide adequate protection for the information to ensure that it is not compromised or subject to unauthorized access.  This data security plan should be specified in the research protocol.
• Ensure that only members of the research team who have a legitimate research interest access the records.
• Ensure that no one outside the research team have access to personally identifiable information.
• Ensure that all data shared in aggregate form is properly de-identified to avoid unauthorized disclosure to third parties.

IRB - irb@acom.edu

Research - research@acom.edu