FERPA & College records

Parents Forum
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<p>From what I understand, parents do not have access to their child's college records unless the child approves.</p>

<p>But I thought I saw a form somewhere on the internet that you could send into the school and they were required to report discipline issues or something to that effect? Does this ring a bell for anyone or am I confusing this matter with something else?</p>

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<p>This is from [College</a> Parents of America - A national membership association serving current and future college parents](<a href=“http://www.collegeparents.org/cpa/resource-current-campus-ferpa.html:]College”>http://www.collegeparents.org/cpa/resource-current-campus-ferpa.html:)</p>

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<p>I am not a lawyer but my non-legal understanding is that as a result of FERPA, your child needs to sign an affidavit authorizing the school to talk with you about grades, finances, or health matters (health falls not under FERPA but under HIPPA, I think). Lawyers to the ready: please correct any mistatements I made.</p>

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<p>I have posted this earlier, back in 2008. </p>

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<p>This is from ed.gov, <a href=“http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/faq.html[/url]”>http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/faq.html&lt;/a&gt;

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<p>My sister, who is a lawyer, also interprets as parents, we have the right to student’s educational records. She said many educational institutions have interpreted the law incorrectly. Colgate University still sends student’s grades home to their parents.</p>

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<p>I don’t think it’s so much that colleges are incorrectly interpreting the law but they would rather err on the side of caution. They also don’t want to get into disputes between ADULT children and their parents.
This may be hard to believe but not all college students dependents on their parents tax returns. How does one even intrepret that? Does a college give a parent info based on last years dependency? They might find themselves hit with a lawsuit.</p>

<p>The solution is simple - get all information from YOUR child. It’s not that difficult if you are paying the bill. If a parent isn’t paying the bill then they need to stay out of their childs business.
I can’t think of one good reason a parent would need to access their adult child’s records from the college.</p>

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<p>JustaMom - you are absolutely right that schools would rather err on the side of caution. But it is important for me to know that if in the worst case scenario I need access to my kid’s information, I would have the right to do so. I don’t think there would be anything wrong for school to use the latest information to determine dependency. It would be the student’s responsibility to inform school if the situation has changed.</p>

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<p>I hope we never have any need bu I wanted to pre-emptively avoid any confusion. At my request, my son sign an affidavit allowing the school to talk with his parents about grades and academic performance, health issues, and financial issues (e.g., is there a bill that he owes that he hasn’t paid) and mailed it to the most relevant dean. My son was very surprised that the school wouldn’t, without his authorization, feel comfortable calling us if he had a broken leg or was having real problems in school. He was happy to sign. [There may be a better way to do this, but I wanted to have something in their hands.]</p>

<p>He also signed a health care proxy which we gave to the school’s health center.</p>

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<p>Seriously, if there is a medical emergency someone will call you. if you son breaks his leg, then he can call you.
Parents and kids both need to realize this is not high school. The college won’t call if he doesn’t go to class or do his homework. They are not babysitters.</p>

<p>To sign nor not to sign - doesn’t matter to me. I think most of my kids signed but I never worried about it.
What would the the “worst case scenario” oldfort? if you child is in a coma you can go to court and get a POA.
Oldfort - if you want access, make your kid sign. If the kid won’t sign then withhold funds. It’s that simple.
I can’t think of how my kids’ colleges would know they are a dependent on my tax return.
I guess I am thinking of a scenario where a child was a dependent in 2008. Moves out on his own in 2009 (no longer a dependent) and starts college in the fall and the nosy parent produces an aged and inacurate docuement to “prove” he is entitled to the information.
Colleges simply should not become intimately involved in the parent/child relationship.</p>

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<p>You’re most likely right, justamom. However, on their student site, they required the kids to check something if they wanted their parents to be called about medical issues and explicitly used the example of breaking a leg. Unless you checked yes and confirmed it in person, they would not call. Probably a friend would call.</p>

<p>One key issue is whether getting the information is opt-out or opt-in. We’ve set it up so that my son will have to tell the school he no longer wants us to have access to the information rather than the other way around. Also, we’ve opened up the line of communications so that they can call us if they have concerns about something. I’m not expecting them to call if he doesn’t go to class or hand in his homework. I would hope to get a call if there were indications of deeper psychological problems or physical problems.</p>