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The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords you certain rights with respect to your education records. These rights include:

1) The right to inspect and review your education records (with certain limited exceptions) within 45 days of the day RISD receives your request for access. You should submit any such request to the Registrar’s Office in writing, identifying the records you wish to inspect. The Registrar’s Office will make arrangements for access and notify you of the time and place where the records may be inspected. Records that are customarily open for student inspection will be accessible without written request.

2) The right to request the amendment of your education records if you believe them to be inaccurate. You should submit any such request to the Registrar’s Office in writing, clearly identifying the records that you want to have amended and specifying the reasons you believe them to be inaccurate. The Registrar’s Office will notify you of its decision and, if the decision is negative, of your right to a hearing regarding your request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to you at that time.

3) The right to consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in your education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent. One such exception permits disclosure to “school officials” with “legitimate educational interests.” A “school official” is any person employed by RISD in any administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support Staff position (including public safety and health services Staff); any person or company with whom RISD has contracted to provide a service to or on behalf of RISD (such as an attorney, auditor, or collection agent); any person serving on RISD’s Board of Trustees; or any student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee, or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks. A school official has a “legitimate educational interest” if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill the official’s professional responsibility.

Another such exception permits RISD to disclose your “directory information” consisting of the following:

  • your name

  • local, home, and e-mail addresses

  • local and home telephone number

  • major field of study

  • enrollment status/rank (e.g., undergraduate or graduate; full time; first-year, sophomore, junior, or senior; first-year, second-year, or third-year)

  • dates of attendance

  • anticipated degree and degree date

  • degrees, honors, and awards received

  • participation in officially recognized activities

  • student ID number, user ID, or other unique personal identifier used by the student for purposes of accessing or communicating in electronic systems

  • most recent educational agency or institution attended

  • photograph, to anyone within the RISD community and to the general public

Students who wish to have their directory information withheld must notify the Registrar’s Office in writing. (Please note that such a notification will prevent RISD from providing your directory information to your friends, prospective employers, arts organizations, and others with whom you may wish us to share such information, so make your decision carefully.) You may give such notification at any time, but it will be effective only prospectively.

Upon request, RISD also discloses education records without consent to officials of another school in which a student seeks or intends to enroll or where the student is already enrolled so long as the disclosure is for purposes related to the student’s enrollment or transfer. Information on other such exceptions is available through the Registrar’s Office.

At any point, new students as well as continuing students may access Workday to Manage their Privacy Settings (to determine whether or not they wish to be included in the public directory), as well as Assign or Remove Third Party Access (to provide parents/guardians/third-parties access to select parts of their financial and academic record). If you choose not to provide third party access, you are urged to inform your parents of your decision. Third party users will receive credentials to access the system directly.

4) The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by RISD to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the office that administers FERPA is: Student Privacy Policy Office, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20202-4605.