<p>“The hypocrisy of schools infantilizing young adults by charging tuition based on mommy and daddy’s income but then so scrupulously excluding mommy and daddy from all information regarding the education mommy and daddy are financing is” … the law.</p>
<p>My son’s school has a process by which (with the student’s permission) parents can get a separate sign-in to view financial info and pay bills. I wish they had a way we could add class schedules or transcripts to that parent portal. Unfortunately, if my son gave me HIS password, I would have access to his emails and other whatnot that I don’t think I should look at. I don’t even necessarily want to see his grades, but I like to keep up with his classes because I think it is interesting.</p>
<p>I might feel differently if my son got bad grades or had other problems. I might want more information.</p>
<p>The idea that his college or a hospital would withhold information if he was so sick/injured that he was unable to communicate is horrifying and maddening.</p>
<p>“The idea that his college or a hospital would withhold information if he was so sick/injured that he was unable to communicate is horrifying and maddening.”</p>
<p>And if your child died because of withheld information about a suicide attempt on campus and multiple cries for help and calls from the parents of concerned friends? </p>
<p>This is an all-too-common occurrence, and I am determined to change this part of the law. Please see my posts regarding privacy versus protection and details of FERPA, even
HIPAA, when a student is a danger to him/herself or others. The Buckley Amendment has morphed into a legal right to suffer and die without notifying parents. This was not its original intent, nor I believe is it now. More colleges are notifying, but law needs to be changed. I’ll try.</p>
<p>What is legal is not always moral and what is moral is not always (or yet, but will be someday, I believe) legal.</p>
<p>“…I have been impressed by how little value our society puts on saving the lives of those who are in such despair as to want to end them. It is a societal illusion that suicide is rare. It is not.”
Kay Redfield Jamison</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hhs.gov/vtreport.pdf[/url]”>http://www.hhs.gov/vtreport.pdf</a></p>
<p>[Why</a> We Ignore Madmen by Kay S. Hymowitz](<a href=“http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-04-21kh.html]Why”>http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-04-21kh.html)</p>
<p>[Could</a> less rigid privacy laws have prevented the Virginia tragedy? - Times Online](<a href=“The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines”>The Times & The Sunday Times: breaking news & today's latest headlines)</p>
<p>“Madmen” or “mentally ill,”–call it what you will, it is very likely to happen again unless provisions of this law are changed.</p>
<p>My DD asked me to learn her PW in case she forgot it! I also had her sign the FERPA. I do go online and check her grades and assignments but I don’t tell her I do it. Seeing her with good grades makes my day. If I see something coming up, I ask her if she has any work coming up. She often sends me drafts of her work to proof.</p>
<p>I don’t mind in the least not having access to my kid’s grades but it is annoying as hell not to just get the damn bill in the mail already. Instead we go through some weird series of emails and I always wind up asking my kid for her password anyway so I can print off the bill.</p>
<p>We asked our kids to give us access to the bursars office which required a limited consent from them. They willingly did this as they did NOT want to deal with billing issues (and yes…we had some). </p>
<p>At DS’s college (he enrolled in 2003) the students only signed a FERPA form if they did NOT want their parents to receive information. EVERYTHING they sent was sent “to the Parents of Student”. We asked and he said that at orientation they were given the option of signing saying that their families would NOT receive the info. All bills, grades, everything…came to us.</p>
<p>At DD’s college she had to sign a form giving us limited access…specifically Bursar. Her school allowed parents with this consent to set up their OWN password for the bursar only. We did this. We also had permission to talk to faculty but never did so (we only would have done this in a very extreme situation…and almost had to when DD was hospitalized and could not contact the school herself…but this was resolved quickly). </p>
<p>And lastly…we had a firm deal with both kids…they had to show us their grades from the term or we would NOT pay for the following term. They had no issue with this and did so (we really didn’t need that with DS as the grades were sent to us).</p>
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<p>I’ve had this argument before on this site, but IMO, that’s totally inappropriate.</p>
<p>If your kid is a dependent, and you are paying for his tuition, then according to FERPA you do have the right to his academic information even without his consent. In the event of serious health situation, a school could inform the parents without violating FERPA.</p>
<p>I have 2 real life examples when I spoke with D1’s professor and dean with D1’s consent (she was out of country), but she didn’t sign the waiver. They had no problem in speaking with me.</p>
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<p>Tuition payment is irrelevant.</p>
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<p>[FERPA</a> for Parents](<a href=“http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/parents.html]FERPA”>http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/parents.html)</p>