DSC Confidentiality

Farmingdale State College students are protected from discrimination under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

These government mandates for nondiscrimination carry with them rules regarding the confidential treatment of disability related information.

Disability related information should be treated as medical information and handled under the same strict rules of confidentiality, as is other medical information. This includes the documentation that students with disabilities or disabling medical conditions must provide to establish the existence of their disability and their need for accommodations.

The United States Department of Justice has indicated that a faculty member generally does not have a "need to know" what is the student's specific disability, only that it has been appropriately verified by the appropriate office of the institution. At Farmingdale State College, this is the responsibility of the Disability Services Center.