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Faculty Guidelines

FERPA

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student educational records. This means that with very limited exceptions faculty should not discuss “educational records” with anyone but the student, even if the student is a minor. Educational records are defined as any record maintained by the college that can be used to personally identify a student. This includes files and documents in all mediums, including attendance records, tests, assignments, and grades. Records in sole possession of the maker (e.g., private advising notes) are not considered educational records.

Student records may not be released to a parent (either custodial or non-custodial) of a student without the student's prior approval. Students can grant access by submitting approval through their My.DaytonaState.edu student portal. Click here for student instructions on how to grant access. Student information is subject to the FERPA guidelines even when the student is under age 18. 

For Faculty who are contacted about a student record:

  1. Inform the person asking that you may not discuss the student’s record without confirmed identity of the person identified in the release. You should confirm identity with a picture ID.
  2. There is no need to do this if the student identifies the person themselves – such as accompanying the parent to a meeting, calling the parent from the professor’s office, or supplying the parent’s email address to the professor for this purpose.
  3. However, even if a student brings in a parent for a conference and says that it is acceptable to discuss his/her records, the parent should be listed a delegate on the student’s record. The student giving delegate access to the parent on the student portal does this.
  4.  Every effort should be made to arrange the meetings so the student is also present. However, if the student has given permission for the record to be discussed without their presence, student must provide that in writing to the faculty.
  5. The discussion should remain on the topic of recorded grades, NOT on observations of the student’s behavior, motivations, or speculation as to reasons for the student’s performance. It is fine to discuss the syllabus, expectations and support services available to students.
  6. Faculty should not suggest that a student might have a disability or suggest they be tested, but it is OK to refer the parent or student to the SDS office if they inquire about it.
  7. Faculty may not refuse to share information on the student record with a properly identified person given delegate access, but if they are uncomfortable or unsure about it, they should ask the department chair to join them.

In conclusion, discussions about the student record with anyone other than the student should occur only with written permission and proper identification of the person, and with the student present whenever possible. The discussion should be limited to educational records only. Click here for instructions on how to look up a delegate.

Academic Integrity

Reproduced in full from the Student Handbook:

Daytona State College is committed to providing students with quality instruction, guidance, and opportunities for academic and career success by fostering academic excellence in a supportive and personalized learning environment.

Maintaining high standards of academic honesty and integrity in higher education is a shared responsibility and an excellent foundation for assisting you in making honorable and ethical contributions to the profession for which you are preparing.

To preserve academic excellence and integrity, the College expects you to know, understand and comply with the Academic Integrity Policy, which prohibits academic dishonesty in any form, including, but not limited to, cheating and plagiarism. Grades conferred by instructors are intended to be accurate and true reflections of the coursework produced and submitted by you.

Unless otherwise explicitly instructed, students are not allowed to use any alternative/Artificial Intelligence (AI) generation tool (including, but not limited to, Chat GPT) for any type of submission or assessment.

Faculty reserve the right to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) detection software to find instances of AI-generated writing in student submissions.

Suspected violations of the student academic dishonesty code will be handled by individual instructors as outlined in their course syllabus. An instructor who finds that a student has violated Academic Integrity may apply an academic consequence ranging from a zero for the assignment, up to and including failure for the entire course.

Instructors are encouraged to report cases of academic integrity violations to their academic department chairperson and to the Office of Judicial Affairs to help track habitual violations of academic integrity and for review and possible additional academic consequences.

In addition, some students may be referred to the student disciplinary process for appropriate disciplinary resolution.