YANML: Does Zooming a student who has a grade complaint violate FERPA?

May 3, 2020 8:27 AM

I have a college student very upset about her grade and a due date which she claimed I changed in verbal conversations. She wants to Zoom. Would recording the Zoom session (w/ notice to the student and providing her the recording) give rise to FERPA concerns?

The student wants to talk in about 45 minutes and I don't have time/opportunity to consult with supervisors.

posted by angrycat to Education (9 answers total)

Best answer: I would delay the meeting until you can meet with supervisors. You have every right to do that.
posted by likethenight at 8:32 AM on May 3, 2020 [22 favorites]

Best answer: I would personally absolutely not consent to doing a short notice Zoom conversation, on the weekend, with a student upset about a grade and, to me, this is not a reasonable expectation on their part. If you are worried enough about this that you feel like you want to record it, this is not a good scenario and I'd highly recommend discussing this by email instead. A disagreement about a verbal conversation is what lead to this, so this is an excellent reason to do this via email, not more verbal conversation--recorded or not.
posted by pie_seven at 8:49 AM on May 3, 2020 [46 favorites]

Best answer: Zoom thinks they're ferpa-compliant. NYC DOE banned Zoom.
posted by aniola at 8:58 AM on May 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: If the student is consenting to the recording, I don't think it's a FERPA violation.

I agree with the pie_seven and likethenight though. Don't do this on the weekend, and check with your chair/director/etc first. A paper trail (email trail) is probably preferable.
posted by tip120 at 9:05 AM on May 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks all!
posted by angrycat at 10:14 AM on May 3, 2020

If you do end up a Zoom conversation and don't want to record it, I think inviting your supervisor would be okay too.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:21 AM on May 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Regardless of whether you have a verbal meeting and/or record the session, it would be appropriate to document the outcome of the discussion in an email (or whatever FERPA-complient messaging system you use) to the student and probably have it BCC'd to your supervisor. Having written documentation should be sufficient against any claims the student might have. Personally, I'd agree with pie_seven; if verbal confusion caused the issue in the first place, that'd make me less likely to want to do more of it, and email has the benefit of being self-documenting.

(Also, you are the teacher, you get to decide when it's convenient and appropriate to have meetings regardless of the format, and no matter how distraught your student is.)
posted by Aleyn at 12:43 PM on May 3, 2020 [5 favorites]

To have things in writing will be very helpful for making things clear.
But it is also helpful to talk through the things, too. I think that lawyers are producing written agreements better than all of us, and lawyers often prefer to meet and talk with clients first, and then produce a written document as a result.
Could you talk with your student and during that conversation together will write some kind of a written document like email?
posted by Oli D. at 1:22 PM on May 3, 2020

My educational institution negotiated a FERPA- and HIPAA-compliant version of Zoom. The consumer version is not, but the version your school may have licensed might be. You'd need to check on your specific terms.
posted by mcgsa at 3:24 PM on May 3, 2020 [1 favorite]