In a nod to the ubiquity of electronic transactions, the U.S. Department of Education is proposing to reinterpret a privacy law that bars a college from releasing a student's transcripts and other personal data without the student's handwritten signature. Under the proposal, students could agree online to the release of their data.

But as far as some institutions are concerned, the department is playing catch-up: Those colleges already let students go online to authorize the release of documents. The department's current rules make no mention of electronic authorizations.

The Education Department is proposing the change because so many institutions have asked for it, department officials say.

If the change is adopted, it would help college students process job and graduate-school applications more quickly. Under the current rules, before a college registrar can forward transcripts to potential employers, for example, the student must sign a statement agreeing to the transaction, according to Jim Bradshaw, a department spokesman.

Both the current rule and the proposed change are based on the department's interpretation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The current rule is publicized on a department Web page.

Some colleges have long viewed the current rule as flexible enough to accommodate electronic signatures in place of handwritten ones, says Shelley Rodgers, a spokesman for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. And the department has not reprimanded colleges that use electronic signatures, she adds.

The University of Maryland at College Park, for example, has been relying on electronic signatures for years, says Mary Ann Granger, associate registrar at the university. Students there can connect to the university's Web site, enter their personal identification numbers and passwords, and request that transcripts be sent to outsiders.

Ms. Rodgers notes that the department rule requiring signatures was issued before a law took effect two years ago that gives electronic signatures the same legal status as written signatures, and before technology was developed that made electronic signatures possible.

Indeed, Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of external relations of the registrars' association, believes colleges that now seek permission from students electronically rather than in writing are not at loggerheads with the department. The department's current proposal is merely clarifying an ambiguity in the law, he says.

But Dennis Hicks, the registrar for Indiana University-East, says the department has been clear about requiring a handwritten signature before student information can be released. He says most colleges have been following this practice, while watching closely for a sign of change from the department. Mr. Hicks helped write a guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act that is published by the registrars' association.

Both college administrators and students want the existing rule updated, says LeRoy Rooker, director of the department's family-policy-compliance office. "There's been a big clamoring for this for some time," he says.

Mr. Rooker notes that students already can conduct their federal student-loan transactions online, thanks to the electronic-signature law.

"The responsibility will be on the institution to ensure that their system is such that they can authenticate that the individual on the other end is who they say they are," says Mr. Rooker, adding that colleges would need to guard against fraud and abuse.

The Education Department is accepting comments on the proposal, which was announced in the Federal Register last week, until September 26. It could be made final in several months.

John Snodgrass, the registrar for Chapman University in Orange, Calif., says he welcomes the proposed change to the privacy law.

"I think it's fabulous," he said. "Students go to the Web to get evaluations and sign up for academic programs. We have them comfortable going to that environment."

But Mr. Hicks, of Indiana University-East, says he's wary of having his institution adopt the procedure.

"How do I absolutely know that this is the student authorizing me to release their records?" he says. "How are we going to define what meets the criteria of an electronic signature?"