As an employee of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, you may have access to the student records. Their confidentiality, use, and release are governed by Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Your utilization of this information is governed by the regulations and the duties and responsibilities of your employment and position.

Your job places you in a position of trust and you are an integral part of ensuring that student information is handled properly. Students have a right to expect that their academic records are being treated with the same care and respect that we would for your own records.

In general, all student information must be treated as confidential. Even public, or “directory” information is subject to restriction on an individual basis. Unless your job involves release of information and you have been trained in that function, any requests for disclosure of information especially outside to the College, should be referred to the Director of Records. Release of information contained on a student’s transcript without the written consent of the person identified on the document is in violation of FERPA.

At the postsecondary level, parents have no inherent right to inspect a student’s educational records. The right to inspect is limited solely to the student. Records may be released to parents only under the following circumstances:

• Through the written consent of the student
• In compliance with a subpoena
• By submission of evidence that the parents declare the student as a depended on their most recent Federal Income Tax Form

An institution is not required to disclose information from a student’s educational records to the parents of a dependent student. It may, however, exercise its discretion to do so.

Get More Details on the Student Privacy Act…