On Respecting Your Student’s Privacy

Each of our students is covered by a federal law called FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). FERPA essentially says that colleges cannot disclose information about a student’s educational record without their permission; students can grant permission in Workday for families to have access to students’ grades, schedule, financials (such as making tuition payments), etc.

Just as the University is bound to protect students’ privacy, I also want to suggest that parents and families should protect students’ privacy as well. We know there are many ways that families connect to each other – you might have other Wake families in your hometown that you socialize with, you may have traded cell phone numbers with other Wake families and have a group chat/text set up, or you may have joined a parenting message board/Facebook group/online forum, etc.

As a college mom myself, there are many times where I want to ask questions of other parent friends about how to handle a certain situation, whether I should worry about X or Y, etc. In the digital world, it is easy to ask those questions in group chats/texts or message boards. But before you post, ask yourself “would my student be upset if they knew information about them was being shared in a public forum?” (even if it is a closed group).

In my conversations with parent and family professionals at other schools, one of the themes we hear is about is family oversharing of student details in a public forum. For example:

• When new student room assignments come out, some families may be tempted to take to their social media/message board of choice and say “Anyone else living in Babcock 3rd floor?” Your student may have valid reasons they don’t want their living space on blast to people they don’t know
• Once school begins, some families share on school message boards that they are worried because their student hasn’t made friends yet, or they have a mental health condition they are struggling with and want recommendations on counselors, or need medicine/doctor referral for something the student might find embarrassing for others to know (think acne, eating disorder, OB/GYN, etc.).

Those are all understandable reasons you might want to seek other families’ advice, and are well-intended gestures trying to find suggestions to help your student. Particularly at smaller schools like Wake, even if a family member doesn’t name their student, if the family member’s name is attached to their post/text/message, it may not be hard for an intrepid person to figure out who that student is. Sharing your student’s personal situation can feel like a breach of trust to your student if they they had not consented for that information to be public.

Students this age are incredibly concerned with the way they are perceived by their peers – particularly if they are keen to join a certain group, attain a leadership position on campus, etc. They may feel sabotaged if they discover their trusted loved ones are sharing information online or in texts that would mortify them for others to know.

In moments where you are tempted to share personal info about your student in a public/online space, you might be best served by doing one of the following:

• Ask your student’s permission to pose a question/ask for advice for a situation they are dealing with. If they grant it, great. If not, don’t share it publicly.
• Talk to a source that routinely keeps student information private or confidential – an administrator or office on campus, a therapist, your in-real-life best friend you know would never disclose the information, etc. – rather than crowdsource your question in an online/public platform if your student might consider it sensitive information.