FERPA Information for Faculty / Staff

Staff and Faculty Training Requirement

All campus and University officials are required to comply with FERPA, UC, and UCSB policy. A "campus official" or "University official" is any individual designated by the University of California to perform an assigned function on behalf of the University.
All campus and University officials are required to complete the UCSB FERPA training, available in the UC Learning Center, before access to any student information will be granted. This includes all system access (eGrades, AAA, BLUE/STAR/SREG, and others).

To access the training, navigate to the UC Learning Center: https://uc.sumtotal.host/
-Choose "UCSB"
-Log in with your UCSB NetID and password
-Choose "Find a course"
-Type "FERPA" in the search box
-Use the "select" button on the right-hand side to start the "SB FERPA Training UCSB" course

Additional or individualized FERPA training can be requested at any time by contacting the Office of the Registrar.

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Application Notice - accessing academic record

Protecting Students' Privacy

Everyone with access to information about a present or former student is responsible for complying with the law and university policies on the use, maintenance, and disclosure of student information.
Improper maintenance, disposal, or release of information about a present or former student is a disservice to our students and exposes the university to significant risk.
- Use a separate password for each service. Don’t use “Log in with…” or have the web browser remember your password.
- Never share your passwords with anyone.
- Do not automatically forward UCSB email account to a personal email account (POP or IMAP). Use only your UCSB email account to conduct university business.
- Do not use phone/tablet “apps” for UCSB email (including Apple Mail, Gmail, or Outlook).
- To access UCSB email on other devices, use the secure website log-in.
- When your work is complete, remember to log out and power down devices when not in use.
- Do not store confidential or restricted student data on a flash drive, personal computer, or non-UCSB contracted software (including cloud).
- Do not leave documents containing confidential student data in an unlocked area.
- Double-check email addresses before sending when the email contains confidential student data.
- Need to send a file containing confidential student data? Use Box.com instead of emailing. It’s more secure, and the file can easily be deleted when its use has ended.
- Be aware of your surroundings. Use a screen protector to prevent others from viewing information on your screen. Take caution when discussing confidential information verbally--can others who do not have a legitimate educational interest overhear your conversation?
Report unauthorized release, access, or disposal of confidential student information to the Registrar and the Chief Information Security Officer.

Not For Release (NFR)

Legitimate Educational Interest

Data Requests

Information for Faculty, Lecturers and Teaching Assistants

Records Retention

Information Release Matrix

I Have Questions About FERPA

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The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law designed to

Protect the privacy of education records,
Establish the rights of students to inspect and review their education records, and
Provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate or misleading data within education records.

The essence of FERPA:

College students must be permitted to inspect and review their own education records.
School officials may not disclose personally identifiable information about students nor permit inspection of their records without written permissions unless such action is covered by certain exceptions permitted by FERPA.

UC and UCSB policy guiding principles:

When law and policy are silent on student records, use and access are to be guided by two principles:

Privacy of an individual is of great weight, and
The information in a student’s files should be disclosed to the student on request within a reasonable timeframe.