Our Commitment to Ensuring Student Privacy

Since our inception in 1993, the Clearinghouse has maintained the confidentiality and privacy of more than 80 million student records. We are scrupulous in our concern for student privacy and institutional compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

FERPA is a federal law that protects students' privacy rights in their education records. In developing StudentTracker, we consulted extensively with the Department of Education's Family Policy Compliance Office, which administers FERPA. We have also retained the services of a former counsel to the Family Policy Compliance Office. (The Department of Education has found StudentTracker to be FERPA compliant, you can read a letter from the Director of the Family Policy Compliance Office here)

We are keenly aware that the enrollment and degree data we provide is not Clearinghouse property. It is held in trust for the institutions that have provided it to us and appointed us as their agent. As such, the Clearinghouse will not release any enrollment or degree data except as authorized by the institution which provided the original data.

Additionally, the Clearinghouse recognizes that, as an agent, it must ensure that an institution's FERPA compliance is not compromised or breached. Accordingly, StudentTracker provides that, unless FERPA permits information disclosure without the student's consent, an institution can only identify the student with directory information (e.g., name, date of birth) that the student has not restricted from disclosure under FERPA. Similarly, StudentTracker releases only unrestricted directory information (e.g., school names and dates of attendance) from records received from a student's other post-secondary institutions, unless FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.

Information about FERPA is available on the Department of Education's Web site.