FERPA and Financial Aid

Graduate School
1

I’m attending a West Coast graduate school in September (a public university). I graduated from a private college several years ago, and I had federal student loans at that college. At the public graduate school I will be attending in September, I will be receiving institutional financial aid in the form of scholarships, graduate assistanceships and fellowships.

A few years ago I had put a FERPA block on my education records (including undergraduate) because of a nasty employer who I found out was searching for my personal information in ways that were not allowed under the law.

Now I put down all my previous schools on my application of course and submitted transcripts. But I think the West Coast school I’m attending in September likes to use the National Student Clearinghouse to verify past attendance, which might present a problem since my records were previously blocked. Now, my undergraduate college is pretty strict about unblocking previously blocked FERPA information, and I would have to go there to fill out the paperwork to unblock it. I can’t just email them or scan and email the signed paperwork.

In order to avoid having to do that, I’m wondering if I can leave the block in place as there are many exceptions to FERPA blocks that allow schools to see previous enrollment information?

Especially since I received federal student loans when I was an undergraduate, will my graduate school on the West Coast be able to see that I received prior federal student loans? Especially since I am receiving institutional aid from that West Coast graduate school? I mean, there are so many ways the grad school can find the information and I included all of my prior school attendance on my application so do I really need to travel to my undergraduate college and unblock it? What is the best practice here?

2

Why would your new graduate university need to see that you received prior student federal loans? Either way, I think blocking it works for people you don’t give permission to - if you give the school permission to view your records they should be able to see it. But I’m not clear on why they need to know what prior federal loans you had at School A? they can still administer your financial aid without knowing that information, particularly since it doesn’t appear you are borrowing any new loans.

3

Hi, thanks for your response. I had prior federal loans at School A, but at my new school, School B, I just have institutional aid from the college—scholarships from the college that have nothing to do with federal or state loans, although School B is a state school. So I don’t think they would need to see my prior federal loans since I am not getting any new federal loans, just school loans. I just didn’t want there to be a problem with my prior schools on the National Student Clearinghouse since I had put a FERPA block on School A because of my previous employer.