A1.2 Special Resources for Students with Difficulties
Updated: May 11th, 2012
Health and Safety Emergencies — FERPA Exceptions.
Regarding how to deal with health and safety emergencies, the U.S. Department of Education website (www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/brochures/postsec.html) states: “In an emergency, FERPA [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act] permits school officials to disclose without student consent education records, including personally identifiable information from those records, to protect the health or safety of students or other individuals. At such times, records and information may be released to appropriate parties such as law enforcement officials, public health officials, and trained medical personnel….This exception to FERPA’s general [student] consent rule is limited to the period of the emergency and generally does not allow for a blanket release of personally identifiable information from a student’s education records. In addition, the Department interprets FERPA to permit institutions to disclose information from education records to parents if a health or safety emergency involves their son or daughter.”
In emergency situations, faculty or staff should contact Tang Center’s Counseling and Psychological Services (510) 642-9494 and/or UC Police’s Threat Management Unit at (510) 642-6760.
Links to other valuable resources for graduate students can be found on our website at http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/life/resources.shtml.
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