FERPA stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. FERPA (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. It was passed in order to protect students’ privacy and to prevent the college from releasing information (to anyone other than the student) without written permission. A FERPA Release form must be signed by the student in order to release any non-directory information.