FERPA (Academic Privacy) Question

Parent Cafe
1

<p>My son has Asperger's Syndrome. He never seems to know how he is doing in a class. In addition, when he gets discouraged, instead of seeking help, he stops going to class. He is very willing for us (his parents) to be involved in his college education.</p>

<p>When he took his request for accommodations to the Disablities Office, one request was that his teachers email us his grades and attendance OR be authorized to respond to our email inquiries. He said he would sign whatever waiver form is necessary.</p>

<p>The Disabilities Office said that there is no way that such communications would ever be authorized, as they are illegal. The school actually has a FERPA Waiver of Academic Privacy form on its website and it asks for the name, address, phone number, cell number and email address of the third party to whom information may be released.</p>

<p>Why do you think the Disablities Office responded as they did? Was it because he asked for an email? I know that his psychologist said that she is allowed to fax confidential medical information but not email it.</p>

2

<p>I just had a thought that maybe your son could e-mail professors individually and state that he has given permission for his parents to view his midterm and final grades? Woul seeing just those grades be enough or would it be better to see all forms of assessments throughout the semester? It just might be better to handle it on a personal level. I think professors are fully aware of students having specific needs…they are parents too.</p>

<p>I hope this all works out for your son so that he could successfully get his degree.</p>

3

<p>Unfortunately, he has proven to us that we should see his grades and attendance on a weekly basis.</p>

4

<p>The person your son spoke to in the Disabilities Office may have no idea that there is such a thing as a FERPA waiver. Not all college personnel are versed in all college policies. </p>

<p>At our college, the FERPA waiver information is organized/maintained by the Office of the Registrar. You might have better luck contacting them about this than trying to get the Disabilities Office to understand what you’re asking for.</p>

5

<p>If his classes use a system such as Blackboard where grades/assignments are posted you could ask that your son gives you his login information so you could monitor things the same way he would.</p>

6

<p>Does his college track attendance?</p>

7

<p>At his last school, he signed a waiver form that came in the mail in a big freshman packet. When we tried to get information later on in the year, the registrar’s office said that the form we signed allowed the university to release grade information, but it did not authorize *his teachers *to communicate with us. I’m a lawyer and when I read the waiver forms, they seem broad enough to allow both.</p>

8

<p>It’s funny that the official is unthinking enough to believe that such a law, with no possible waiver, could exist.</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>That was our salvation in high school. Both schools he’s attended after high school have an online system, but no teacher has ever posted anything but the final grade.</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>Call me Extraordinarily Cynical, but I think the folks that work in the disablities office of a community college can tell the students just about anything and most will believe it.</p>

11

<p>A lot of college classes don’t take attendance and might have few or no grades posted until the end of the quarter/semester. Did you check on these points with the college? You might be disappointed if you’re expecting to see attendance and it’s something not every class tracks or grades when some classes might not post a grade until class is done.</p>

12

<p>Not sure if this is the original question or not, but in some ways faxes are more secure than emails - faxes are encrypted transmissions, while emails are usually not encrypted and can be hacked.</p>

13

<p>

I don’t know if it’s a factor or not but email isn’t secure whereas a fax is point to point and generally as secure as the receiving fax machine (i.e. whether it’s in a secure room or not).</p>

<p>Edit - cross-posted with the above but disagree that faxes are encrypted. The security in a fax is that it’s point to point whereas an email goes from mail server to mail server through various routers and can be hacked unless encrypted which is rarely done.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>I’d be happy with “haven’t seen him in a while…” from the teacher, where warranted.</p>

15

<p>Here at work, our faxes are actually routed to our emails.</p>

16

<p>At both of my kids’ schools, he FERPA form needed to be signed in the presence of a college person…no way to do this online or via email. So…have your son sign that FERPA form and copy it…he can then give a hard copy to all of his professors, and to the folks in the disabilities office…who also won’t be able to talk to the profs if necessary.</p>

<p>At my kids’ schools, there are different “levels” of FERPA…we only had our kids sign so we could talk to the Bursar’s office. We did NOT have access to the professors for ongoing conversations and grades and test monitoring. Perhaps the disabilities office can help your son handle this.</p>

17

<p>There is a lot of misinformation about FERPA on college campuses AND, it seems, each college interprets it differently. It is frustrating for parents, students, and college staff.</p>

<p>Your son should be able to waive any and all rights he has under FERPA and you should be able to receive the info you want. You may need to talk with the Registrar or even the university attorney to accomplish that.</p>

<p>BUT, be warned, even if everyone agrees that you can receive any and all info your son is entitled to, it might not be what you want. As others have suggested, it’s very possible his professors will not take attendance or even notice he’s not there. (How big are his classes?) Even if they do, professors are notoriously difficult about passing along that kind of info. Takes too much thought, time, a nuisance, etc. (I’m a professor . . . and an administrator. I know!) You and your son can prevail upon their good nature and cross your fingers.</p>

<p>We (colleges) tend to handle physical disabilities pretty well but things like Aspergers? Not so well. Normally, I’d suggest you talk with the disabilities office for advice and guidance but it sounds like yours isn’t the best. </p>

<p>Good luck. I fear you have an uphill battle.</p>

18

<p>missypie, I have a couple of thoughts here, both as someone who lived through this as a student, and as a current college employee.</p>

<p>When I was in college, I suffered from attention problems (hyperfocus as well as attention deficiencies) and consequently had a huge problem with time management. As a condition of their paying for my education, my parents required me to submit a letter to each of my professors, every semester, explaining that I authorized my teachers to answer any and all academically-related questions my parents might ask them (grades, attendance, content of papers I’d written, etc). </p>

<p>(To my knowledge, my parents never actually called any professors or deans to ask anything. I think they thought that the threat would be sufficient to keep me on my toes. I graduated, so it must have worked. :))</p>

<p>That was 14 years ago. I’ve been working since 2001 for the same college that currently employs me, and I’ve seen a huge shift in faculty attitudes about parent involvement. Unfortunately, the shift hasn’t been positive.</p>

<p>If your son’s teachers are typical of most college instructors, no amount of waivers or permission letters will <em>compel</em> them to provide information to you, even if the waiver <em>permits</em> them to provide information. There are two basic issues here. For one thing, most colleges vastly overschedule and underpay their faculty, particularly the faculty who teach and advice younger undergraduates, and they often don’t have time to respond to questions from all their students, let alone a student’s parents. </p>

<p>For another thing, it’s difficult for faculty to differentiate between overinvolved helicopter parent situations and situations where a parent is genuinely the right person to help their student succeed. You can, of course, go over a professor’s head (to his department head, his Dean, etc.) if the professor doesn’t respond to your requests, but the administration may not be any more sympathetic than the faculty.</p>

<p>Please understand, I’m not suggesting that you’re helicoptering. I’m suggesting that the attitude of your son’s school’s Disabilities Office (“no information, no way”) indicates that his giving permission to release information might not be sufficient and that you might have a fight on your hands. Best of luck to you.</p>

<p>(yikes, crosspost with InTheBiz!)</p>

19

<p>Professors are likely to stonewall you, at least at first. They have been trained, possibly by the same person as their colleague in the disabilities office, to shout “FERPA!” and run away at the first sign of parental interest (in much the same way we taught our kids about stranger danger). </p>

<p>You need to begin every conversation with “I know about FERPA and I’m not going ask you to violate anything.” They need to understand that what you are doing is different from a helicopter situation.</p>

<p>Your son needs to be physically present and you need to have multiple copies of the elusive FERPA waiver (that you will get once you quietly bump this up to someone who actually has read the law) in hand, and you need to have a short list of very specific accommodations that you are asking for.</p>

<p>And even then, at least a couple of his classes will fall between the cracks. But at least it’s a start.</p>

20

<p>Even with a FERPA, most professors will balk at discussing a student’s work with a parent in any detail beyond conveying the midterm or final grade. Disability or not, FERPA or not, it’s not the parent’s business. I’m sorry, but that’s one of the key differences between high school and college. The professor is not there to negotiate your child’s academics with you.</p>

<p>I also want to stress that accommodations for learning disabilities are determined by the disability office and communicated to us by the student, who self-discloses with the appropriate paperwork. Students and parents cannot privately arrange accommodations with individual professors without the involvement of university disability services.</p>