<p><a href="http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/brochures/postsec.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/brochures/postsec.html</a> </p>
<p>Guide to Parents</p>
<p>This seems very consistent with what the president of my son's college told us at Family Weekend, basically--if your child's safety is involved, we can tell you and we will tell you.</p>
<p>Colleges still have wide latitude to interpret FERPA as they see fit. I suspect most will try to protect themselves first. Whether or not this in the best interest of any individual student or not remains to be seen and depends on the circumstances.</p>
<p>As a parent, this is scary to me. Here's a link to an article about waivers from last month in the WSJ: <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119025113570633335.html%5B/url%5D">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119025113570633335.html</a></p>
<p>Colleges mentioned in the article include Temple, Univ. of Tampa, Univ. of Wisc. Madison, JHU, Univ. of No. Tex. Denton, and (of course) Va. Tech. "Ferpa has several exceptions that allow colleges to share information with parents or authorities without a student's written permission. These include when the school deems there is a 'health or safety' emergency; if the parents declare the student a dependent on their taxes; or if the student gets a drug or alcohol violation and is under 21 years of age."</p>
<p>Yet here's another link to a cautionary tale. This time it's MIT, but I wonder how other schools would have handled the situation: <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118938714106322174.html?mod=US-Business-News%5B/url%5D">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118938714106322174.html?mod=US-Business-News</a></p>
<p>From the first article above:</p>
<p>"Administrators explain that parents have no right to their child's academic record under law, even if they are paying the tuition. Many also explain their philosophy that college is a place for young people to become independent."</p>
<p>Then a lot of administrators at a lot of colleges must be in the wrong, since FERPA clearly allows parents access to records if their children are tax dependents? </p>
<p>Why are colleges interpreting this law in different ways?</p>
<p>If the health or safety emergency involves birth control pills, will parents be notified?</p>
<p>This may be construed as off topic, or helpful insight. I just installed a webcam using Skype.com to transmit for free-DD has a laptop w/built in webcam(apple). We just "talked" on sunday. I was able to see her-read her body language-something much more helpful in determining the well-being of my DD than IM/text messages/email or phone. I share this because several CC parents educated me about what to buy & install. Holding good thoughts for all our children.</p>