Ask the FERPA Professors

I hope this message finds you well. I’m writing to ask for guidance on the following questions:

If alumni publicly post their bar exam results on social media, may professors or other law school officials share that information in an internal email to faculty and staff, indicating that the individual passed?

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing back from you.

I hope you are doing well.  I am writing in response to your questions regarding alumni bar exam results. 

You ask if alumni publicly post their bar exam results on social media, may professors or other law school officials share that information in an internal email to faculty and staff, indicating that the individual passed? 

I do not believe FERPA would apply to the bar exam results, as FERPA excludes from the definition of "education records" those records that are created or received after an individual is no longer a student in attendance and that are not directly related to the individual's attendance as a student.  The bar exam clearly occurs after the graduate is no longer in attendance at the law school. 

The critical question is whether the bar examination is "directly related to the individual's attendance as a student."  The Department has clarified that the alumni records exclusion applies to records that concern an individual or events that occur after the individual is no longer a student in attendance.  Bar examination passage is a post-graduation event that occurs after the student is no longer enrolled.   

Also, bar examination passage would generally represent a professional achievement unrelated to the student's time at the institution and more closely relates to the graduate's career and not their academic attendance.  Thus, nothing would preclude professors or other law school officials from sharing that information indicating that the individual passed.  

You also ask whether the Registrar may send a list of graduates, along with the jurisdictions in which they sat for the bar exam, to the Director of Teaching and Learning to check the jurisdiction’s website to confirm whether they passed? 

It would appear in this scenario that the Registrar would be disclosing a list of students who have graduated from the institution to the Director of Teaching and Learning, along with where the students sat for the bar exam.  While where a student sat for the bar exam is not information from a student's education records, a student's graduation status is information contained in a student's education record that is considered to be directory information. 

As such, you could disclose a student's graduation status to the Director of Teaching and Learning as directory information consistent with the institution's directory information policy, unless the former student has opted out of the disclosure of directory information. 

However, if the Director of Teaching and Learning is a school official of the institution whom the institution has determined to have a legitimate educational interest, you would be permitted to disclose the list of graduates irrespective of the information being directory information. 

I hope this is responsive to your questions.  Let me know if you have further questions.

Respectfully,

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