Deceased Student

Type

Procedure

Category

Students

Department

Enrollment Success/Registrar

Phone

(541) 463-5686

Primary Contact

Dawn Whiting

Responsible Executive Authority

Vice President, Academic and Student Affairs

Purpose

In the event of the death of a currently enrolled Lane student, the proper notification channels must be followed, in order to respect the decedent's next of kin and to ensure that all of the appropriate campus individual have been contacted. This procedure describes those notification channels, and specific staff to be notified.

Narrative

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, email, copy of an obituary, or via letter and should be directed centrally to the Registrar.

Upon receipt of said notification, the Dean will research the student's current standing with the college and notify via email the appropriate college officials. An initial email will be sent as a heads-up, particularly for the Counseling and Advising area to be made aware of the situation. A formal email, 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 Financial Aid (if this student has been a financial aid recipient)
  • Dean of Student Engagement
  • Director of Public Safety
  • Public Information Officer
  • Bookstore Director (if outstanding debt exists to the Bookstore)
  • Manager, Health Clinic
  • Associate Dean of the Center for Accessibility Resources (when appropriate)
  • Dean of Student Success
  • Director of Library (if outstanding debt exist to the Library)
  • Instructional dean for student's academic program
  • Student's current term instructors

It is the responsibility of the 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 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 Registrar, or the Student Records Administrative Coordinator as a proxy for the Dean.

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 Registrar, documenting how the student's individual situation was processed for each individual student. Documentation of the proof of student death is scanned to the Banner student record.

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 Registrar, at 541-463-5686.

Date Adopted

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Date Last Reviewed

Thursday, January 11, 2018