FERPA Compliance

FERPA protects the privacy interests of students in their education records. It generally prohibits the disclosure of a student's personally identifiable information from education records without the consent of the parent/guardian or eligible student. An eligible student is one who reaches the age of 18 years old and/or attends a postsecondary educational institution, in which case the rights of the parent/guardian transfer to the student.

Under DualEnroll.com, students and high school guidance counselors share GPA, test scores and other relevant information with college admissions and registar personnel to facilitate the college admission/registration process for jointly authorized dual enrollment courses. The DualEnroll.com service acts as a trusted custodian with full awareness of and adherence to FERPA compliance requirements.

The U.S. Department of Education publishes a variety of FERPA compliance materials including a helpful FAQ located here. FAQ number 7 is specific to Dual Enrollment:

7. What if my child is a minor and he or she is taking classes at a local college while still in high school - do I have rights?

If a student is attending a postsecondary institution - at any age - the rights under FERPA have transferred to the student. However, in a situation where a student is enrolled in both a high school and a postsecondary institution, the two schools may exchange information on that student. If the student is under 18, the parent/guardian still retains the rights under FERPA at the high school and may inspect and review any records sent by the postsecondary institution to the high school.