Solomon Amendment & FERPA

Solomon Amendment & FERPA

Solomon Amendment is a federal law that allows military recruiters to access some address, biographical and academic program information on students age 17 and older who have not filed any FERPA restrictions.

The Department of Education has determined the Solomon Amendment supersedes most elements of FERPA. An institution is therefore obligated to release data included in the list of “student recruiting infor­mation,” which may or may not match our FERPA directory information list.

Definition – “Student Recruitment Information” or “Solomon Information”

1. Name
2. Address
3. Telephone
4. UMW email address
5. Age* (ages 17 and older)
6. Citizenship* (U.S. Citizen and Resident Alien only)
7. Level of education or class standing
8. Academic major

Procedure for releasing information to military recruiter:

1. Under the Solomon amendment, information will be released for military recruitment purposes only. The military recruiters may request student recruitment information once each term for each of the 12 eligible units within the five branches of the service:
   • Army: Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard
   • Navy: Navy, Navy Reserve
   • Marine Corps: Marine Corps, Marine Corps Reserve
   • Air Force: Air Force, Air Force Reserve, Air Force National Guard
   • Coast Guard: Coast Guard, Coast Guard Reserve
2. The request should be submitted in writing clearly identifying the unit of service requesting the student recruitment information.
3. The request should specify whether the information needed is for the current or previous semester.

All Solomon Act requests or questions regarding the release of this information should be directed to bstockto@umw.edu.

*not defined as directory information at UMW

 

References

https://www.aacrao.org/advocacy/compliance/solomon-amendment#guidance

https://ferpa.iu.edu/basics/solomon-amendment.html