ABC FERPA

“Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) -A federal law designed to protect the privacy of educational records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their education records, and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate and misleading data through informal and formal hearings.”

In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, certain information pertaining to students may not be released to a third party without the written consent of the student. Therefore, Arkansas Baptist College hereby designates the following categories of student information as public or “Directory Information”.

Such information may be disclosed by the institution for any purpose, at its discretion:

CATEGORY I Name, address, electronic mall address, telephone number, dates of attendance, and classification.

CATEGORY II Previous institution(s) attended, major field of study, awards, honors (includes Dean’s list), degree(s) conferred (including dates), and Arkansas Baptist College taken photographs for institutional marketing and historical purposes.

CATEGORY Ill Past and present participation in officially recognized sports and activities, physical factors (height/weight of athletes), date and place of birth, and photograph of student.

NOTE: Information pertaining to the students’ academic status is CONFIDENTIAL, and should not be released without the written consent of the student (Example: transcripts, grade reports, grade point average, ACT scores, class rank and academic status.)

Current enrolled students may withhold disclosure of any category of information under the Family Educational rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as amended. To withhold disclosure, written notification must be received in the Office of Registrar’s prior to the last day to complete registration. Forms requesting the withholding of “Directory Information” are available in the Office of Registrar’s Office. Arkansas Baptist College assumes that failure on the part of any student to specifically request the withholding of categories of

“Directory Information” indicates individual approval for disclosure. 

Arkansas Baptist College may disclose educational records without written consent of students to the following groups who have a “legitimate educational interest”:

• Employees within Arkansas Baptist College who maintain educational records and those with a legitimate educational interest, including faculty or staff who deal with the student and carry out education studies, and employees designated by them to assist in these tasks.;

• Any college employee, or person acting on behalf of the college, may have access to student records without the student’s written consent if that person needs the access to carry out his/her employment responsibilities.;

• Officials of other colleges or universities in which the student seeks to enroll, with a notice of the disclosure being sent to the student’s last known address;

• Organizations conducting studies approved by the College having educational value or concerning financial aid;

• Accrediting organizations approved by the College carrying out their accrediting functions;

• Parents who submit to the Registrar a copy of the first page of their most recent federal income tax form, indicating that their child/student is a dependent as defined by the internal revenue service.;

• Persons in compliance with a judicial order or a lawfully issued subpoena, with a notice of the disclosure being sent to the last known address of the student;

• Persons in an emergency if, in the judgment of an official in charge of the records, knowledge of the information is necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or other person;

• In addition, the College would release education records if ordered by a subpoena;

• The disclosure is to state or local educational authorities auditing or enforcing Federal or State supported educational programs or enforcing Federal laws which relate to those programs;

• The disclosure is in connection with determining eligibility, amounts, and terms for financial aid or enforcing the terms and conditions of financial aid; and

• The information disclosed has been appropriately designated as directory information by the college.

FERPA’s protection of personally identifiable information in a student’s education records ends at the time of a student’s death. Institution are allowed to develop policies to protect information behalf of the deceased student and families thereof. Arkansas Baptist College has a procedure for deceased student records.
Policy: Arkansas Baptist College regards the academic records of deceased students as confidential information. The academic records may be released at the discretion of the College.

Procedure: The records can be released only upon receipt of a written request sent to the Registrar’s Office. The records will only be released to a spouse, parent, and the executor/administrator of the estate, a child, sibling, court order or subpoena. The request must include the need for the records, must identify the requester’s relationship to the deceased student and must be accompanied with an official record authorization to receive the student records, assignment as executor/executrix. An official copy of the death certificate must accompany the written request. Signature is required.

The request should contain as much of the following information:
All names of the former student
Social Security number of student ID
Date of birth
Dates of attendance

For further assistance, please contact the Office of the Registrar’s

Arkansas Baptist College
1600 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive
little Rock, Arkansas 72202