At San Jacinto College, your student records are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). We’re here to help you understand your rights and the exceptions to the policy.
FERPA helps protect the privacy of student education records. The intent of the legislation is to protect the rights of students and to ensure the privacy and accuracy of education records. The Act applies to all institutions that are the recipients of federal aid administered by the Secretary of Education. Institutions that fail to comply with FERPA may have funds administered by the Secretary of Education withheld.
The Act provides you, the student, with the right to:
Students have the right to see everything in their educational records except information about other students, financial records of parents, and confidential letters of recommendation if they’ve waived their right of access.
Major Acts that Amend FERPA include the following:
The USA Patriot Act
Section 507 of the USA PATRIOT ACT amends FERPA by permitting educational agencies
and institutions to disclose - without the consent or knowledge of the student or
parent- personally identifiable information from the student's education records to
the Attorney General of the United States or to his designee in response to an ex
parte order in connection with the investigation or prosecution of terrorism crimes.
In addition, the school is not required to record such disclosures.
The Solomon Amendment
The Solomon Amendment explicitly states that military recruiters must be given equal
access to that provided to other recruiters. San Jac is therefore obligated to release
data included in the list of "student recruiting information," upon request. For more
information, please see Solomon Amendment & FERPA.