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<p>Wow, I would be saying good luck taking care of your bills.</p>
<p>DS’s school had the bill online and as other parents have mentioned, the student can authorize parents (or anyone else actually) to have access to the financial info only. The school also sends a hard copy to the home address, but of course, addressed to son. He didn’t mind me opening that mail!</p>
<p>It does boggle my mind with these FERPA laws.</p>
<p>Seriously…if you set up the monthly payment plan with auto deduction…all you need to “worry” about is that there is sufficient money in the account from which the money will be transfered. That gets your KID right out of the payment loop…worth the peace of mind if this is a concern to you.</p>
<p>We plan to pay the semester in full when it’s due, as we have the $ and she has a partial scholarship, so there’s no sense paying extra fees (Rutgers outsources the payment plans). </p>
<p>I agree that I shouldn’t have access to her university email account, but schools should figure that 99% of 18yo freshman aren’t paying their own bills. She just set up her own bank account a few weeks ago, so it’s a gradual process of getting her ready to manage her own money, but being reponsible for a $10,000+/semester bill is a bit daunting for someone that age. </p>
<p>This is an example of privacy laws gone too far. On her 18th birthday I made her sign all the HIPPA stuff listing her parents as interested parties (or whatever it’s called).</p>
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<p>Keep in mind that HIPPA “stuff” needs to be signed at EACH occurance. SO if your DD signed something allowing you to talk to her doctor, that does NOT mean that a hospital or the student health service will speak to you if she goes there. Our daughter HAD a health issue…there is NO blanket HIPPA form to complete. She had to complete one for EACH doctor, at EACH facility…for EACH occurance.</p>
<p>HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) releases can be signed for one occurrence or ongoing per institution/type of service.
Our HMO allowed son to sign one for handling ADHD prescriptions but not other MD discussions.</p>
<p>FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) releases refer to academic records including payments. So even if the school has a separate parent payment portal, the student must set that up through their online account.</p>
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<p>Exactly…so if you sign one for the student health center and your child then sees either a private doctor…or is admitted to a hospital…another one will need to be signed. The one for the health center will not apply.</p>
<p>Hello. My son will be attending SMU and they have various payment options on how to pay the tuition. Through Sallie Mae, you can pay it monthly and you can select how many months you would like. For example, you can choose 12 months, 10 months, 8 months, etc. I was wondering if any of you use this monthly payment option and if you are happy with their service. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear it. I was surprised by the different monthly plan options and I’m not sure which one I should choose yet. Thank you.</p>
<p>My daughter attends a SUNY school. When she was first accepted, I accessed her account (at her request) and set up the system for her. I access it with her knowledge all the time. This semester, she asked me to register for her because she was in a 3 hour class when her time began and she didn’t want to get shut out of her choices. As for her email, she set up a separate g-mail account for her emails, but her course related emails grow through the system I can access. I don’t care about her personal emails but I do like to be able to check her grades, since she has an academic scholarship.</p>
<p>If she did not agree to give me full access, I would not pay her tuition. When I was in school, my parents refused to pay my tuition and then demanded full access to my information, which came by mail. I set up a post office box instead. Had they paid my bills, they would have been entitled to, and would have gotten, my grades, etc.</p>
<p>My son’s university has a website for paying bills that has a student portal, a parent portal and a guest portal! I guess the latter is in case a grandparent or other relative wants to contribute! So - that has worked pretty well. He did sign the FERPA form - so the FA office will speak with me - has not been a problem.</p>
<p>One issue we will have this year is that his FA award appears on June 1 or thereabouts on a different website that only he has access to. He will be back at school then. So - I either have to convince hin to give me the login info so that I can see the FA award and accept/decline as needed - or trust him to do it. I would certainly feel better being able to see it myself.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure why not. I mean, this is just a financial account–it’s not like you’re getting access to grades, her emails, etc., right?</p>
<p>FYI–the tuition bills may come when she is at home, but other bills can be sent during the year–costs for course packets, etc.</p>
<p>Seriously, I don’t like her attitude. That would not fly in my house.</p>
<p>usually the accounts give access to assignments, grades, billing, and yes sometimes e-mail is built in, depending which system the school is using.</p>
<p>My university doesn’t send out tuition bills to enrolled students. It does send out e-mails to the student’s account and sends automated calls to the student’s home reminding that the student’s bill needs to be paid. Parents can set up a guest account to view and their student’s bill and can always go and pay the bill in person, even if they don’t have online access to the account. Many students I know just give their parents their login information and let them access everything. My parents rarely use computers, so I go online or to the cashier’s office to pay my bill in person with a credit card (no fees) and they give me the money to pay the credit card bill. That said, we have a very trusting relationship and I do tell them my grades and how much money I owe the school.</p>