Procedure:    Deceased Student
Department:   Enrollment Services
Contact:         John Hamblin ,  (541) 463-5686            hamblinj@lanecc.edu

Notification Process

In the event of the death of a currently enrolled Lane Community College student, the proper notification channels must be followed to respect the decedent's next of kin, and to ensure that all the appropriate campus individuals have been contacted.

Notices of a student's death may come in the form of a phone call, e-mail, copy of an obituary, or via letter and should be directed centrally to the director of Enrollment Services/Registrar.

Upon receipt of said notification, the director will research the student's current standing with the college and notify via e-mail the appropriate college officials.  An initial e-mail will be sent as a heads-up, particularly for the Counseling and Advising area to be made aware of the situation.  A formal e-mail, providing instructions on how to “process” the death will be sent to a variety of campus officials, once the director of Enrollment Services/Registrar has received official documentation.  Campus officials to be formally notified may include, but are not limited to:

President (for a note to be sent to the family)
Student Records Specialist
Director of Student Financial Services (if this student has been a financial aid recipient)
Directors of College Finance
Women's Center Director
Director of Student Life and Leadership Development
Director of Health and Safety
Bookstore Director (if outstanding debt exists to the Bookstore)
Director of Student Health
Director of Student Disabilities (when appropriate)
Director of Counseling and Advising
Director of Library (if outstanding debt exist to the Library)
Division Chair for student’s academic program
Student's current term instructors

It is the responsibility of the director of Enrollment Services/Registrar to make sure that each individual contact person above follows through on any appropriate steps necessary to process the student's death.

Notification in the Student Information System

Once the director of Enrollment Services/Registrar has confirmed the death of the student with appropriate documentation (obituary, certificate of death), an annotation is made in SPAPERS in the student information system, which reads at the top of every Banner student form as:  DECEASED.

This indicator is placed in SPAPERS by the director of Enrollment Services/Registrar only.

This indicator is in place to prevent student registration from continuing on a deceased student and to prevent the student from receiving further mailings.  Once this indicator has been put into place, mailings from the college should discontinue. 

Record Maintenance

A file is maintained in the office of the director of Enrollment Services/Registrar documenting how the student's individual situation was processed for each individual student.  A copy of these records is placed in the microfilmed jacket within Student Records, as well.

Release of Information

Per Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations:
 

Under common law regarding privacy rights, the privacy interests of an individual expire with that individual's death.  Accordingly, the disposition of records held by an institution and pertaining to a deceased individual is not a FERPA issue but a matter of institutional policy.  Because FERPA would no longer apply, the institution may exercise its own discretion in deciding whether, and under what conditions, information should be disclosed to survivors or other third parties.

Questions on the release of information for deceased students should be directed to the director of Enrollment Services/Registrar, (541) 463-5686.