FERPA stands for Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. It’s especially important to be vigilant in our online setting because we never know who is on the other end of an email. Below are some best practices to use so that you are acting in accordance with this law.
Only refer to the student by their first initial in emails with staff. In the Subject line of an email with staff may include first initial, last name, and the Student ID (for example, A. Fox 12345). For the rest of the email, you would then only refer to the student as A. CLICK HERE for a job aid with more information about FERPA compliance with emails, along with some tips and tricks to be aware of.
When making a personal call, ask for the learning coach by first and last name. Have them confirm the student’s name and their address before discussing specific information.
When leaving voicemails do not disclose too much information. A good format would be “Hello, my name is (blank) and I am calling from Indiana Digital. I am calling because you are listed as a parent or guardian of one of our students and I had a concern about this student’s performance in (class name) class. Please call back at 765-204-2224 and use extension (insert your extension). You can also contact me by email using my school email (insert email address). Thank you and I look forward to speaking with you soon!”
If you sending information to multiple students use the keyword tools to automatically have that student’s information populated in the message. Replacement strings can only be used when sending an email from TVS. They do not work when sending from Outlook. CLICK HERE to learn more about keyword tools.