University of Wisconsin–Madison

FERPA for Students

When you were in elementary, middle, and high school, FERPA gave your parent(s)/guardian(s) certain rights to your education records. Once you turn 18 years old or begin taking classes at a post-secondary institution like the University of Wisconsin–Madison, those rights transfer to you. That means your parent(s)/guardian(s) do not automatically have the right to view your grades, disciplinary records, or any other parts of your UW–Madison education record.

If you want to share your grades or other records with your parents/guardians, the easiest way to do so is for you to share the information with them directly. For example, you can download your unofficial transcript from your Student Center and provide it to them. You can also authorize the university to share selected records with a person of your choice by completing a release form. You must fill out this form each time you want to authorize the university to disclose this information; we do not offer an ongoing ”blanket” approval.

Resources

Your Rights

The rights provided to you under FERPA are:

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You may request access to review and inspect your education records.

To do so, start by writing to the university official (i.e., registrar, dean, department chair, or other appropriate university person/office) responsible for the records. Your written request must indicate which record(s) you want to inspect. The university official will make arrangements for when and where you can inspect the records. If the person/office to whom you submitted the request doesn’t maintain the records, that official shall let you know the correct person or office to whom the request should be addressed. It is your responsibility to submit the request to that person or office. Upon receipt of the written request, the university official has 45 days to comply.

The university is not required to provide you with copies of your educational records.

FERPA does not give you the right to access certain records, such as the financial records of a parent/guardian or confidential letters and statements of recommendation for admission, employment, or honorary recognition that you have waived the right to inspect and review.

FERPA gives you the right to request your education record be amended if you believe it is inaccurate. FERPA does not give you the right to, or provide a process to, question substantive judgments that are correctly recorded (i.e. contesting a grade in a course because you feel you should have earned a higher grade). FERPA is intended to ensure the factual and accurate nature of the information in your education records and your right to verify that information.

To request an amendment to your education record, you should:

  1. Contact the university official responsible for the record;
  2. Clearly identify the part of the record you want changed; and
  3. Explain why you believe it is inaccurate.

If the university decides not to amend the record as you requested, you have the right to a formal hearing. If UW–Madison still decides not to amend the record, you may place a written statement in the record about your view of the contested information.

In the process of challenging the education record information, you may want to have copies of appropriate documents in your education record file. The university may charge a reasonable per copy fee for such documents. The university will deny your request for a copy of any document in an educational record if you have a hold/service indicator on your record that prevents the release of your official academic transcript, or if the document is a transcript of an original or source document which exists elsewhere.

Generally, UW–Madison must have your permission to release information from your education record. However, FERPA allows UW–Madison to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions:

  • School officials with a legitimate educational interest;
  • Other schools to which you are transferring;
  • Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
  • Appropriate parties in connection with your financial aid;
  • Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
  • Accrediting organizations;
  • To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
  • Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
  • State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific state law.

While UW–Madison may disclose directory information, such as your name and email address, without your consent, we must tell you about what we define as directory information and allow you a reasonable amount of time to request that we not disclose some or all of that information. This is commonly referred to as a FERPA restriction (see “Privacy Restrictions” below).

If you believe your rights under FERPA were violated, you should first contact the school/college/department you believe was responsible.

You may also reach out to the Office of the Registrar for assistance and/or file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.

Your Responsibilities

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Under FERPA and university policy, you are responsible for protecting your own education records and those of your fellow students.

  • Review your privacy restriction settings regularly: You will be reminded to do so each spring and fall semester before you sign up for classes as part of the Pre-Enrollment Checklist.
  • Respect others’ privacy: Both FERPA and UW–Madison policy require that you not reveal information about classmates to anyone outside of the class. Your classmates may have restricted access to their education records, including their name and email address. Even if you have access to your classmates’ personal information and/or academic work, such as through Canvas, you are required to keep that information private.
  • Do not share your NetID/password: It is against Universities of Wisconsin policy for you to share your login information with anyone, including parents/guardians. This is in part to protect your education records and those of other students from being improperly accessed. University officials who need to access your records will have authorized ways to do so and will never ask you for your login information. If you are found to be sharing your NetID/password or other login information, you may have your access suspended or revoked.

Privacy Restrictions

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You can choose whether to prevent some or all of your personal directory information from being shared through what is commonly called a FERPA restriction. You can edit your privacy settings in your Student Center.

It’s important to note that putting a privacy restriction in place may prevent UW–Madison officials from sharing information about you with potential employers and may mean your name is not included in the publicly available Dean’s List or the Commencement program. We encourage you to consider your individual circumstances carefully before adding or removing a privacy restriction.

Even with a FERPA restriction in place, the university has the right to share your information with school officials who have a legitimate educational interest. You will also continue to get official campus messages and will appear on class rosters.

UW–Madison will honor your request to restrict the release of directory information but cannot assume responsibility to contact you for subsequent permission to release the information. Regardless of the effect upon you, UW–Madison assumes no liability for honoring your request that directory information be restricted.

Exception Overview

You have the right to restrict your information from being released under FERPA. If you have restricted some or all of your information, you are stating that you don’t want the information released, and if you enter an exception, that information can be released in certain scenarios:

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This exception allows your directory information to be in published lists of graduates, Dean’s lists sent to hometown newspapers, and similar announcements and publications. However, the Dean’s List will not include your information if you have a restriction of any kind.

At this time, this is only a placeholder for future development on name/email exceptions to allow this information to be restricted but accessible in the campus directory. This exception currently has no impact on privacy restrictions.

At this time, this is only a placeholder for future development on applications such as Box, LinkedIn Learning, etc. This exception currently has no impact on privacy restrictions.

In an Emergency

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The Office of Student Assistance and Support (OSAS) coordinates reporting and interventions for “students of concern”: any student who may be experiencing personal, financial, health, mental health challenges or is displaying behaviors that may interfere with their own success or disrupt the learning of others. FERPA allows school officials to share critical information about students of concern with appropriate parties.

Visit OSAS’ website for more information about referring a student of concern and what happens after a referral.

FAQs

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You can edit your privacy settings in your MyUW Student Center. There, you will be able to choose whether you want to restrict the release of a certain type of directory information, such as your address or phone number, or put a blanket restriction in place. Refer to Student Center – Editing Your Privacy (FERPA) Settings for step-by-step instructions.

Yes. Refer to Student Center – Editing Your Privacy (FERPA) Settings for step-by-step instructions.

It may. Depending on what information you choose to restrict, the effects may vary.

Common examples include:

  • Restricting the release of your name will keep you from appearing in the Commencement program;
  • Restricting the release of your home address means you wouldn’t be included in the list of students on the Dean’s List that we send to your hometown news outlet(s); and
  • Restricting the release of your dates of attendance and/or degrees, honors and awards means UW-Madison couldn’t share this information with a potential employer if asked.

We encourage you to carefully consider the benefits and drawbacks of entering a privacy restriction before doing so. If you have questions, contact our office.

No. You can change your privacy restriction settings at any time after you’ve enrolled in the university. Before you add or remove a FERPA restriction, make sure you understand the consequences of doing so.

Yes. Your rights under FERPA do not change based on whether a course is taught in-person, online, or in a hybrid setup.

In the event you are enrolled in classes at your high school and UW–Madison at the same time, the two schools may share information about you with each other. While FERPA rights transfer from your parent(s)/guardian(s) to you when you begin attending classes at a postsecondary institution, if you are under 18, your parent(s)/guardian(s) will still have the right to inspect and review your education records at your high school, which may also include records from UW–Madison.