Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
Studies involving student education records must comply with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). It is not uncommon for research projects to involve students, either those enrolled in a specific course or those enrolled in university programs. For instance, it is common practice for medical students to serve as subjects in biomedical research or for psychology students to serve as subjects in behavioral research. The obvious concern is that their participation may not be truly voluntary, because of a desire to appear particularly cooperative or highly motivated, or because participation in research is a course requirement. The IRB-HSR or IRB-SBS will provide more information regarding compliance during your protocol review. The website provided here is a decision diagram on this topic provided by the University Registrar.