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What is FERPA?
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, also known as the Buckley Amendment, helps protect the privacy of student records. FERPA is sometimes also referred to as the student records confidentiality policy.
With certain exceptions, officials of Bluefield College will not disclose personally identifiable information from a student's education records without the student's prior written consent. "Directory Information" will be disclosed without the student's prior written consent, unless the student has notified the Office of the Registrar in writing to restrict release of that information.
The name and address of the office that administers FERPA is:
Family Policy Compliance Office U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202
Any record maintained by the College that is related to the student with some narrowly defined exceptions.
College employees are permitted to release the following information, referred to as “Directory Information,” without prior written consent from the student (except in cases in which the student restricts access to this information).
*Because the Jenzabar ID Number (JIN) is public information, posting non-directory information, such as grades, using any part of the JIN as an identifier is not permitted.
Note: Directory Information" does NOT include parent information (names, address, phone number), nor does it include country of origin, if other than the U.S.
College officials requesting data other than directory information will be given such information if they have a legitimate educational interest. College officials have a legitimate educational interest if it is necessary or desirable for them to have access in order to carry out their official duties and/or to implement the policies of the College, or if it is in the educational interest of the student in question for such officials to have the information. Persons receiving this information (or directory information prior to its publication) are responsible for protecting the confidentiality of the students involved. They are not permitted to re-release this data to persons, other than College officials with a legitimate educational interest, without the prior written consent of the students involved.
Parents of a dependent student as defined by the Internal Revenue Code may have access to the student's educational records. Parents must provide the Office of the Registrar a copy of their most recent federal income tax form, indicating that they declared the student as a dependent in order to document dependency.
When is the student’s consent NOT required to disclose information?
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act also gives a student the right to inspect his or her education records (hard copy and electronic) and to request amendment of those records if they are inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student's privacy rights.
To inspect his or her education records, a student must file a written request with the individual who has custody of the records that the student wishes to inspect (University Registrar, Academic Dean, Department Chair, Director of University Housing, etc.). This request must be honored within 45 days after the records custodian receives it.
To request amendment of his or her records, a student first discusses the matter informally with the records custodian, and if the custodian does not agree to amend the records, he or she will inform the student of applicable appeal rights. Students also have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education alleging that the university has not complied with FERPA.
Students may NOT see parents' financial statements or records and letters of recommendation for which the student waived the right to view.
Students may NOT see the personal information of any other student or any information on a student who has a nondisclosure request on record.
If you have relocated and need to change your official address on file, please download, complete, hand-sign, scan, and email the Change of Address Form from Registrar Forms to .
If your name was legally changed, then you must download, complete, hand-sign, scan, and email the Change of Name Form from Registrar Forms to BC Central.
The institution records participation for various reasons.
A student has participated if he or she has attended a class session, completed an assignment, and/or communicated in writing reasons for his or her excused absence before and up to the census date.
Note: The Registrar’s Office will be registering students up until census date. These students may not have participated in a class activity prior to census. It is the student’s responsibility to communicate any late registration directly to his or her instructor(s).
A student has NOT participated if he or she fails to complete one of the above clarifiers. Attendance is tracked individually by the instructor in accordance with the Bluefield College Academic Catalog Policy as sited below.
Regular class attendance is critical to the learning process. Students must attend a minimum of 75% of classes in a course to receive academic credit. This college-wide policy serves as the basis for instructors’ individual attendance policies as described in course syllabi. Instructors maintain class rolls for all courses. At the discretion of the instructor, unexcused absences can result in severe academic penalties including, but not limited to, academic withdrawal, reductions in course final grades, out-of-class reading assignments with in-class oral reports, and out-of-class meetings with the course instructor. All such penalties are included in course syllabi. Students should notify the course instructor in advance about any planned absence so homework assignments can be made. When missing a class, students should ask a fellow student to take class notes and collect any course handouts.
Bluefield College has official policy regarding the amount of time certain documents will be retained; view the Records Retention Policy in the current Academic Catalog.