Registrar

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law enacted in 1974 to protect the privacy of student education records. The law applies to those institutions that regularly receive federal funding from the Department of Education and is enforced by the Office of the Chief Privacy Officer of the U.S. Department of Education.
Learn about the UT Dallas FERPA and Education Records Policy, the applicability, disclosures, exceptions, etc..
FERPA forms can be found on the page Electronic Forms and Other Resources.

More information regarding FERPA can be found at ed.gov .

Frequently Asked Questions about FERPA

Students have five primary rights under FERPA:

  1. To inspect and review their education records
  2. To seek to amend those education records they believe to be inaccurate or misleading
  3. To have some control over the disclosure of information from those education records
  4. To file a complaint concerning alleged failures by an institution to comply with FERPA regulations within 180 days
  5. To be notified of the student’s privacy rights under FERPA

Please use this link to anonymously report alleged FERPA violations to the University for investigation:

FERPA violation webpage

Complaints of alleged violations may also be addressed to:
U.S. Department of Education
Student Privacy Policy Office
400 Maryland Ave, SW
Washington, DC 20202-8520

Students may ensure their directory information is not shared with outside sources by completing a FERPA – Request for Confidentiality. Instructions for completing this request can be found on the Electronic Forms and Other Resources page.

Directory information may appear in public documents and may otherwise be disclosed under the Directory Exception unless the student submits the restriction request by Census Day of each semester.

Students may challenge the contents of educational records and request corrections to inaccurate or misleading information. Any request for correction or explanation of record contents should be presented in writing to the person in charge of the office where the record is maintained.

FERPA allows the University to disclose student records to parents or legal guardians if the student is a dependent of the parent as defined by Internal Revenue Code of 1986, section 152.

The Parents Certification of Dependency form is processed in the Office of the Registrar. This form can be found on the Electronic Forms and Other Resources page.

Student consent is required before form processing.

The child must be under the age of 24 and claimed as a dependent on the parent’s federal income tax return from the previous calendar year. The tax return document has to be submitted along with the form.

The student may revoke parent access at any time by sending a letter or an email via their UT Dallas email account to the Office of the Registrar.

The Parents Certification of Dependency is valid for one year (January-December) and must be renewed annually with supporting documentation.