Disability Services (DS) strives to treat all personal information with the strictest confidentiality. DS respects the privacy of individuals and will err in favor of confidentiality whenever possible.
Disability Services regards the information it keeps about students as educational records. DS prefers that documentation of disabling conditions provided by students should be limited to that which is necessary to establish the disability and the right to reasonable accommodations in the post secondary educational setting.
Disability Services may release information to University faculty and staff when a “need to know” some or all of that information is established by DS. The “need to know” must be based on legitimate educational reasons for the information disclosure. Generally speaking, faculty and staff merely need to know that DS has documentation on file that verifies the disability and the student’s right to reasonable accommodations. Likewise, only DS staff has the right to access student files directly. On occasion, internal auditing and monitoring of student information may occur, but only under the strictest confidentiality protections.
Disability Services will obtain written authorization from the student before releasing confidential information to persons or entities outside of the University. On occasion, third parties such as courts of law, may legally order DS to release information with or without a signed authorization from the student.
For each student served, Disability Services creates a paper file that contains both internal and external documents. DS maintains these files in secure storage for up to five years after the last year in which the student was enrolled at the University. After that time, DS destroys the physical file and all of its contents. DS encourages students to obtain and keep copies of their documentation for future uses. Students may receive copies of their files on request and will be asked to sign a release of information form. In addition, students may give written permission for copies of the file to go to a third party, however, only DS personnel may directly access the file.