Proposal Would Clarify Law On Sharing Student Information
Colleges Would Gain Flexibility in Providing Help

By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Nearly a year after the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, the U.S. Department of Education has proposed regulations to clarify when colleges can release confidential information about students who might be a danger to themselves or others.

The massacre April 16 raised concerns among educators nationwide about properly balancing privacy and safety concerns. A panel appointed by Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) found that "widespread confusion" about privacy restrictions led to communication lapses among officials who dealt with mentally ill student Seung Hui Cho before he shot and killed 33 people, including himself.

LeRoy Rooker, director of the Department of Education's family policy compliance office, said the proposed guidelines would not make any substantive changes in a college's responsibility under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. But, he said, the rewritten regulations would make it clear that schools wouldn't be penalized for reporting fears about students who might be a danger to themselves or others. Colleges must abide by privacy regulations to receive federal funds.

"What we're saying to schools is you don't need to get tripped up over it," Rooker said. "If you think someone is at risk, maybe a student who is contemplating suicide, or if you think a student is potentially at risk to do harm to others and you feel it's necessary to disclose that, do what you have to do."

The shootings at Virginia Tech have prompted efforts by officials and educators nationwide to make college campuses safer by tightening security, improving mental health services and creating systems to alert students of danger. In the fall, the Department of Education, in a first step toward helping schools and parents navigate complex privacy laws, released user-friendly brochures on the topic.

The proposed regulation goes a step further, tweaking guidelines to make it explicit that parents are among the parties who can be contacted if a student is at risk, Rooker said. It also gives schools more flexibility in defining a potentially dangerous situation.

College officials said the changes, while small, would help ensure that counselors have the tools they need to reach out and build support systems around troubled students.

"This gives us a little more flexibility to help people who aren't in a position to help themselves and to keep others safe," said Jeff Pollard, director of counseling and psychological services at George Mason University.

Pollard said it is equally important that the law allows, but doesn't require, that schools contact parents. For instance, he said, it could do more harm than good to call a parent if the student had been abused by that parent. "I want to be able to, but I don't want to be mandated to," Pollard said.

Kaine's panel found that at Virginia Tech, officials and others sometimes wrongly thought that educational or medical privacy laws prevented them from sharing information. The panel found, for instance, that police could have informed Cho's parents when female students complained about his behavior. The report also noted that the law applies only to records and that professors or administrators who notice a student acting strangely can share that information with police and parents.

Ada Meloy, general counsel for the American Council on Education, said the regulations would help clear up that confusion.

"The changes that are proposed in the regulations provide additional assurance that colleges and universities acting in good faith can disclose information from education records in health and safety emergency situations to parents and to others who have a reason to need to know the information," Meloy said.

Universities and others have until May 8 to submit a response to the proposed regulations. Rooker said the department will consider those responses and could make changes. He said a final regulation probably would be in place this fall.