Collegiate Times

While parents may still prohibit schools from releasing information about their children who are minors, the law enables colleges to divulge students
"directory information." This includes names, addresses, birthdates, and the height and weight of members of athletic teams, among other things.

The proposed regulations allow for a further step in the verification process of recommendation letters and other records.

For example, colleges can now return recommendation documents back to the alleged author, who in turn can either validate or reject the letter as a falsification.

Also, institutions would be able to share records with the group that originally created them without the consent of a student or parent, something that helps universities who would otherwise be unable to gauge authenticity.

Deciding whether or not students are a threat to themselves or one another will be left up to the university, Bradshaw said.

"We provide flexibility to schools to determine if the student is a threat to himself or others," Bradshaw said.

Kirsten Nelson, communications director with the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia, said that in addition to having the ability to self-identify the legitimacy behind releasing records, colleges will continue to have a staff member conscious of FERPA's regulations.

"Each institution has people whose job includes keeping up with FERPA," Nelson said. "When the new regulations become official, they will have to adopt them and abide by them." Massa noted that the most significant factor in the proposal could be the removal of fear of penalization for universities releasing student information in the event of an emergency.

"The safe harbor provision, from a student health and safety perspective, is the most significant," Massa said. "That is where the department will not substitute its judgment for that of the institution."

The Department of Education has encouraged citizens to comment on their proposed amendments to FERPA before May 8, 2008. Comments and recommendations should be submitted to the Education Department.

Upon the deadline for comments to be submitted, the Department of Education will spend the remainder of the spring and summer reviewing suggestions. Bradshaw said that the final results will be published in the fall.

The results, much like the proposal, will be published in the Federal Register, referred to as the government's bulletin board, a publication for notices of federal regulations.

"The comments are supposed to be suggestions on what to change in the proposed regulation, so we decide what changes need to be made before they are published," Bradshaw said.

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