Grand Valley State University offers many opportunities for students to get involved, and this requires an understanding and respect of confidential student information. If you are in a role that encounters confidential student information, you are required to abide by FERPA policies and procedures. For this reason, we have FERPA training available, and it may be required depending on your role. Some of these roles could include: 

• Teacher's Assistant
• Graduate Assistant
• Student Grader
• Tutoring
• Student Employee

Why FERPA training is important:

Some people may come across confidential information while preforming their job duties or completing their degrees. They are equally obliged, as we are as a university, to respect its confidentiality. The University is bound by professional ethics to safeguard the integrity and confidentiality of student information. This includes all university officials, persons employed by the university in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position, regardless of their work classification of full-time, part-time or temporary.

Explanation of FERPA training quiz:

The training will require you to watch a video on FERPA policies, complete a quiz regarding the video, and sign a confidentiality agreement, to demonstrate your compliance with FERPA policies, which are in place to protect student record information. Once you complete the quiz with a score of 100%, the confidentiality agreement will appear. Please sign and upload the agreement as an assignment by clicking on "Confidentiality Agreement and Security Policy".

Process of submitting the form:

Steps:

1. Faculty determine level of access needed.
2. Faculty gather information to complete the request form (student’s email, GNumber, and the course section number(s)).
3. Faculty submit FERPA Training Request Form on the Registrar’s Office website.
   1. If the student is a graduate level student, the form flows directly to the student to complete the FERPA training.
   2. If the student is an undergraduate level student, the form flows directly to the Dean’s Office for approval.
   3. Upon successful completion of the FERPA Training, the form will flow to the Registrar’s Office for review and approval.
   4. Once approved, Registrar’s Office Staff will notify the Blackboard Admin Team and the appropriate level of access will be granted in Blackboard.

*NOTE: If a student will be assisting in more than one section, please make clear distinctions to the sections to which access are needed. This form is required EVERY semester as we must know the exact section in which a student will be assisting.

Process on our end: We need to verify that students have successfully completed training and then flow the requests to Blackboard Admin.

You are required to complete training before you are granted access to fulfill the duties of your role; you must complete this before getting access to Blackboard.