Disability Resource Center

Confidentiality Questions

Are my dealings with DRC confidential?
All dealings with DRC are kept confidential under the Family Rights Education and Privacy Act (FERPA). Your encounters with DRC are not part of your permanent record.

What is FERPA?
FERPA is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, some times referred to as the Buckley amendment. FERPA controls who has access to your academic records and who can discuss your academic career at the University. FERPA limits who has the right to “know” information about students. IF often comes as a shock to Parents that FERPA restricts the parents’ right to information about the students academic career, including grades and class performance, even contacts with the Disability Resource Center.

Here is the Government web site for additional information.

If I register with DRC is that part of my permanent record?
Registering as a student with a disability is an internal matter. There is no place for disability status to be placed on your permanent record or transcript. Just as there is no place that says a student received a good grade because they used the Tutoring Center or the Writing Center, there is no place to note that a student received a better grade because the student used appropriate academic accommodations.

Does the Disability Resource Center send out a list of students who registered with the office to all of their professors?
No. The students' right to privacy is protected. A student may not need accommodations in a particular class and so will choose not to identify him or herself as having any type of disability. Students must identify themselves, however, if they desire accommodations.

To identify oneself, a student must request a letter stating the recommended appropriate academic accommodations from the Disability Resource Center, to give to his/her professors. Preferably, this letter is given to the professor during the professor’s office hours and the student and the professor have a conversation about the requested academic accommodations.