The public posting of grades either by the student’s name, institutional student identification number, or social security number without the student’s written permission is a violation of The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Even with names obscured, numeric student identifier numbers are considered personally identifiable information. Therefore, the practice of posting grades by social security number or student identification number violates FERPA.

 Instructors and others who post grades should use a system that ensures FERPA requirements are met. This can be accomplished either by obtaining the student’s voluntary written permission to do so or by using code words or randomly assigned numbers that only the instructor and individual student know. The order of posting should not be alphabetic.