<p>What is the process by which a parent or their student can access and review their entire college file, including academic, judicial, everything? I know that FERPA does not apply in college so what steps are needed to make this happen?</p>
<p>Also, can copies of what is in the file been accessed and if there is something in the file that could hurt the student's access to graduate school, for example, is there a way to expunge this information? Any guidance would be appreciated.</p>
<p>The student should have access to all records that are not confidential for some reason.</p>
<p>For parents or anyone other than the student, I think FERPA does apply in college. Our KIDS needed to sign a release giving us access to things. The ONLY thing we wanted was access to the bursars office so we could deal with billing issues. Since our kids didn’t want to deal with the bills, they happily signed the necessary release.</p>
<p>Read this:</p>
<p>[Family</a> Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)](<a href=“http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html]Family”>Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA))</p>
<p>Thanks thumper1 and jonri; I’m very familiar with FERPA, however it does not state that it applies to college. Also, what would be considered “confidential” records – shouldn’t all information be accessible for review?</p>
<p>Anything from student health services, and anything that a mental health worker wrote would
NOT be available to you unless already were given a copy of this information. </p>
<p>Wouldn’t your student already HAVE copies of everything you are asking about? </p>
<p>If you are concerned that others might be able to gain access, they can’t unless your student gives permission.</p>
<p>Anything on the student transcript would be available when any transcript was requested and sent.</p>
<p>Why should it be accessible to a relative? If the person is over 18. Just because you pay?</p>
<p>FERPA applies to any institution of higher education that receives federal funds:</p>
<p>Initially, FERPA applied to “any State or local educational agency, any institution of higher education, any community college, any school, agency offering a preschool program, or any other educational institution.” The 1974 amendments substituted the term “educational agency or institution,” defined as “any public or private agency or institution which is the recipient of funds under any applicable program.”
Source: <a href=“https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/leg-history.html[/url]”>https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/leg-history.html</a></p>
<p>Since almost every college and universities discussed here on collegeconfidential receives some form of federal funds, your child’s college is probably following FERPA policies. Once your son or daughter is older than 18, you can’t access this or her file without explicit, written permission filed with the institution.</p>
<p>If your child is over 18, even as a parent you have NO access to ANYTHING at your child’s school, even their tuition bill technically. Your child has to sign a release giving your access.</p>
<p>SteveMA. I don’t have the facts on this but if you still declare your 18 year old as a dependent on your taxes and show the tax return to the school, then you do have access.</p>
<p>This is from this link</p>
<p>Once a student turns eighteen, or attends school beyond secondary school, the rights of access to the student’s records transfer to the student. This means that all academic information regarding your college student goes directly to the student unless the student has given specific, written permission to release that information to someone else. The exception to this law occurs if parents document in writing that the student is still claimed as a dependent for income tax purposes. The college may require you to submit your most recent tax forms in order to support this claim.</p>
<p>[What</a> FERPA Means for You and Your College Student | College Parents of America](<a href=“FERPA: The Form to Access Your Student's Academic Records - College Parents of America”>FERPA: The Form to Access Your Student's Academic Records - College Parents of America)</p>
<p>Where my child goes to school, they are provided a FERPA form at orientation and my child signed it. When we had an issue with her tuition, it was a breeze for me to deal with as the release allowed the school to talk to me. I feel that as long as I am paying their bills, I have certain rights. I also respect their privacy and they know this…</p>
<p>If you want to see what’s on the transcript, your student probably can request a copy. I’m not sure if in-progress transcripts are available from the National Student Clearinghouse but you can check. I was able to get myself a copy of my transcript when it was needed at a job after I was hired and my son was able to get additional copies of his from National Student Clearinghouse, but I’m not sure about in-progress degree transcripts (if the student is currently enrolled and attending classes).</p>
<p>At my second son’s college they keep the financial and the academic separate and the kids don’t need to “permission” the financial, so I am always able to access the financial, but I can’t “see” the academic unless I sign-in as my son (which I don’t as I don’t have his password/username).</p>
<p>Pianomom, I assume you are referring to W’s or however your kids college designates classes from which he or she withdrew?</p>
<p>I see transcripts all the time for applicants to my company for various roles (we require transcripts for some, not all) and as far as I can tell, there is no way to “expunge” or clean up a transcript after the fact. Some colleges have policies that if a kid flunks a class and then retakes it, the F disappears but the original class remains as a “W” or no credit. Colleges have various policies on incompletes, drops before or after a deadline, etc. But I’m not aware of a way to “clean up” a transcript after the fact. If that were the case, there would no academic integrity whatsoever, and grades would be pretty meaningless.</p>
<p>What are you suspecting you will find on the transcript?</p>
<p>Is bursary information considered an academic record under FERPA?</p>
<p>Bursar information is considered the student’s. At both of my kids’ colleges, bills were sent to them. The only way we could gain access to the bursar information ourselves was for our KID to sign a FERPA release giving us permission. The release for the bursar did NOT give us access to grades or anything else.</p>
<p>Pianomom, it took me about 2 seconds to find my D’s college’s policy, and I’m sure you could do the same. I simply went to the website and typed into the search bar “confidentiality of records.” </p>
<p>BTW, I discovered that, at my D’s school, “No material in a student’s record is released to any other person, agency or institution without prior formal consent of the student.” That includes academic, disciplinary, and health records. And they were explicit that “other persons” includes parents. </p>
<p>The link posted by Lakemom suggests that </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And college records can’t be expunged – of course not. If every student could go back and whitewash their records, what would be the point of records at all?</p>
<p>I have not had a reason to test FERPA rules but it would seem to me if you fax the page on your taxes that show your kid is still a dependent then they must show you what ever you want to know. </p>
<p>I researched this further and to be independent, a student must live more than 6 months away from home and dorm living is not included, meaning real rent. And, the student must make over 50% of their income alone. </p>
<p>I don’t know how financial aid fits into this but it seems to me that schools wave this blanket FERPA rule over everyone so they don’t have to deal with the students that it doesn’t really apply to in regards to parents seeing records.</p>
<p>It only took ONE almost snafu for my kids to very willingly sign so I could talk to the bursar.</p>
<p>Lakemom, I had reason to test the FERPA guidelines. I had an urgent billing issue. I was VERY willing to fax my tax return (which the school already had as this kid’s FAFSA was selected for verification annually). It was a NO GO. My KID had to hightail it to the bursar’s office and sign a release for me to speak to them. If he hadn’t don e so, they were NOT going to talk to me about a billing error.</p>
<p>That would have make me nuts. I had a DMV experience once where I had to go through 3 people about some rule that was not actually written in their manual.</p>
<p>This is what the .gov website says. I would have printed this, circled it and pushed for someone with a brain who knows how to read.</p>
<p>Another exception permits a school to disclose personally identifiable information from education records without consent when the disclosure is to the parents of a “dependent student” as that term is defined in Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code. Generally, if either parent has claimed the student as a dependent on the parent’s most recent year’s income tax statement, the school may non-consensually disclose the eligible student’s education records to both parents under this exception.</p>
<p>[FERPA</a> for Students](<a href=“http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/students.html]FERPA”>http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/students.html)</p>
<p>Lakemom, isn’t it just easier to have your kids sign the required FERPA form? Our kids didn’t want to deal with the bursar. They willingly signed the form (after we realized they needed to do so). Once they were in college, that’s really all we needed access to. We required grades to be shown to us…by the kids…as a condition of paying the bills. We did not want or need access to their student records through the college.</p>
<p>It would if it came along in the packet of info or if the form was online and could be printed out and faxed. In all the paper work I received there was no such form. I don’t think it is online either. I actually didn’t even know it existed until you all have mentioned it. </p>
<p>I mostly resent being told rules that are not true. Besides the DMV, I have had other situations where “rules” were told to staff member in other situation that they fiercely enforce when in reality there is no such rule.</p>