FAMILY EDUCATIONAL RIGHTS & PRIVACY ACT OF 1974

Sitting Bull College adheres to a policy of compliances with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (Buckley Amendment). The definition of this Amendment is as follows:

"A federal law designed to protect the privacy of educational records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their educational records, and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate and misleading data through informal and formal hearings."

FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school/college beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are "eligible students”.

Sitting Bull College has designated the following information as "Directory Information":
Students’ name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, dates of attendance, major field of study, and recent schools/colleges attended.

This information is generally considered not harmful and may be released to anyone unless the student requests otherwise. If there is any information above a student does not want released, he/she may indicate so on the Disclosure of Student Records/Information Release Form which is a part of the Application for Admissions.
Generally, schools/colleges must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. However, FERPA allows schools/colleges to disclose those records, without consent, to the following parties or under the following conditions:

  • College officials with legitimate educational interest (Faculty/Staff of SBC);
  • Other colleges to which a student intends to transfer to;
  • Auditors or Evaluators of college programs;
  • Funding sources such as Higher Education, WIA, JPTP, VA, Scholarship Programs, etc;
  • Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the college;
  • Accrediting organizations;
  • Local, State, and Federal judicial orders or lawfully issued subpoena; and,
  • Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies.

Each student has the right to inspect or access their educational record and may:

  • be provided a list of personal educational records, files, and documents maintained at Sitting Bull College (attached to the Disclosure of Student Records/Information Release Form which all students are required to sign at the beginning of their first term of attendance at SBC);
  • inspect and review the content of such records (contact Registrar to do so);
  • receive a response from the college to a reasonable request for explanation or interpretation of records; and,
  • have a hearing to challenge the content of the records.

Any student wishing to inspect his/her file must contact the Registrar.

ACADEMIC ADVISEMENT

Each student is assigned a faculty advisor upon enrollment at SBC. In most cases, the advisor will be an instructor in the student's specific area of study.

The advisor assists in proper course selection to meet curricular requirements and helps students avoid errors in scheduling. However, students have the final responsibility for satisfying the degree requirements for the curriculum chosen and the college’s general education requirements.