Posted on 08/18/2009 8:29:56 AM PDT by SpeakToPower
Parents will be forbidden from receiving and accessing their dependent child's grades at colleges and universities - even when they pay for the entire cost of the child's education.
Just pay up and don't ask questions
PAAARTY!!
At my daughter’s school, she can sign a waiver and allow us to view.
If your child is ill or is receiving psychiatric services at the college you are not entitled to see those records either.
When is there going to be a parent’s bill of rights when it comes to shelling out exorbitant amounts of money for tuition and then being simply told to get lost for the entire time the student is attending that college.
This is old news.
Our kids signed the waivers as a precondition to receiving their monie$ from us ;-)
It’s been that way for years!!! It’s federal law once they turn 18. Kids have the “right” of privacy. We have the “right” to pay their bills!
Hi Son. The cupboards bare...Ask your college prof if you can live with him. I'm sure he'll cook for you and do your laundry.
That’s the way to do it. The university must protect its students and their privacy. If mom and dad are paying the way, they will have to arrange progress reports with their kids.
“Parents will be forbidden from receiving and accessing their dependent child’s grades at colleges and universities - even when they pay for the entire cost of the child’s education.”
You are also entitled to tell the kid if he doesn’t sign this right away at the beginning of school (to remain in force while you are paying), he can for it pay himself...
Wow!
If I pay the bill, I want to see the grades. Period.
Well, they are adults. If you don’t like it, don’t subsidize your kid’s education.
This is stupid, but there seems to be an easy way around it.
Parent: Sign the grade notification waiver.
Kid: No.
Parent: Then pay your own tuition.
“Well, they are adults. If you don’t like it, don’t subsidize your kid’s education.”
Or how ‘bout this? “You’re an adult. If you want privacy, pay your own way.” Or as a sign in a joint in Fredericksburg says,
“Teenagers: tired of listening to your parents? Quick - move out, get a job, pay your own bills, while you still know everything!”
Colonel, USAFR
She is starting her Senior year and just got married (a Marine who just deployed for his second Iraq tour and also re-upped) and while his deployment money will cover almost everything I will still pay some cash, so I still get to see the report card.
She has no problem and proudly shows it to me.
I live in North Stafford. Where is that sign? I want to take a photo of it.
This is nothing new. I teach college and cannot discuss any aspect of a student’s career with any outside sources unless the student signs a waiver or agrees in front of witnesses to allow me to do so, lists me as a reference.
All I can do is confirm they completed or did not complete a course of instruction, and that they are or are not a student.
Parents call me constantly wanting information. I cannot legally give it. It is a violation of student privacy. We also cannot post grades in hallways, even with an alias or tied to a key word.
Tom Penders, basketball coach at the University of Texas, went from a multi-million dollar contract to out the door in a couple of weeks. One of his assistant coaches stated during a press conference that a student athlete that had been complaining about the athletic program was on scholastic probation.
BAM! Violation of federal privacy laws. BAM! Job gone.
It should only be of concern to parents who have no control over their still dependent children.
The easy cure is to withhold tuition payments if they refuse to show you their grades.
I was on the University of Washington campus this last weekened. Walked around the bookstore, etc.
I’m amazed at how completely hard left the campus had gone. Even the pretense of the political diversity is gone.
Sorry - Fredericksburg, Texas. Place called Alamo Springs Cafe, right above the old railroad tunnel where the bats come out every night. Heckuva cheeseburger...
Colonel, USAFR
Then, as an adult, Junior can pay his own tuition, room and board, car insurance, and do his own laundry. How many universities could stay in business if kids, um, 18 year old adult students, were soley responsible for coming up $35k a year? Sorry, Junior, but if I'm footing your bills you will keep me informed or the checks stop.
And if my kid needs medical attention or they know of him/her going wacko like Virginia Tech I darn well better be notified.
FERPA is certainly not new, nor is some prohibition of access to undergrads educational info. However, in this particular case, this University’s “former policy ... of sending grade reports and notices of preliminary disciplinary action to parents and guardians of dependent students” is changing from a situation where the school “routinely answered parent inquiries regarding a ... student’s academic progress” to a situation where no information is available to parent without express authorizataion from student.
One other thing, just as a warning. This came from one of the more difficult discussions I had with a grandparent.
The grandfather had paid tuition for the semester (a couple of thousand dollars.) His grandson did everything he could to get thrown out of my class. I finally kicked him out after two weeks. About a month and a half later, the grandfather dropped by to ask how his grandson was doing.
It turns out the kid had only registered in order to get kicked out so he could take the refund and pocket it. He never told his grandfather he’d been kicked out of class, and the only question he asked me when I was checking him out was how soon the refund would be available.
Legally, the money belongs to the student for refunds. There are different rules for financial aid and loans, but if an individual pays for another individual’s classes, that money is a gift. The refund will go to the student, not the person who paid.
Just an FYI.
My guess is a lawyer reviewed their policy. There’s a disconnect in whether a student is a child or adult. They can be listed as a dependent until age 25, and parental income is listed for financial aid, but the student is considered an adult in terms of privacy.
Ping. All my kids understood that if I didn’t see the grades their education was on them.
That’s not a college rule, that’s federal law. Your college age kid is an adult, if they want you to see their grades they can show them to you, but the college is not allowed to distribute their personal information to ANYBODY but them. No grades, no address, NOTHING.
That’s HIPAA regulations, medical information can’t be distributed without patient permission. Whether or not the person is even a patient is privileged information. The same law that keeps you from finding out if your kid is receiving psychiatric care also keeps your boss from finding out if you’re seeing a shrink.
Darn! Just a little too far from VA to go get a photo. Oh well....
Even outside of the college realm, I cannot see my daughter’s medical records, although she is on my health insurance, and I pay the co-pays and deductibles. All the insurance explanation of benefits are mailed to her.
The real translation of that message is: we found out our old policy and actions were in direct violation of federal law, so we stopped.
I don’t have a problem with this. They are adults and entitled to show their records to whoever they want. If parents are paying for it, they are entitled to demand to see the records, from the kids, not the school.
Were you able to fully inform the grandfather of what was transpiring at that point or were your hands still tied?
I am happy to report that my daughter who graduated from college in May got a manager trainnee job with benefits at Abercrombe.
They signed a waiver and we had total access. This was at least 6 years ago to current.
we have been forbidden for some time, due to Federal Privacy Laws (no doubt having genesis with Bill Ayers and the SDS). In my daughter’s freshman orientation they drilled this point home to parents over and over and over again...
Oh, and I guess under S-CHIP we also now have the right to pay for their health care until they are thirty
My kids handed over the password or we didn’t hand over the check.
End of story.
I believe the primarily aspect of responsibility is the ability to not present a monetary burden to others?
If an employer pays someone to perform work, the employer has the right, nay, responsibility, to review the work.
It is the responsibility of a teacher teaching a student a subject to review the test results.
It is the responsibility of a parent paying a school to teach their child to review the progress.
All I could tell him was that his grandson was not one of my students and that the tuition refund check had already been picked up.
It’s easy to connect the dots from that, but I had to let him connect them. When he walked out of my office, he looked like he’d been shot. He could not believe that a family member would con him like that.
Most of the colleges don’t mind it that much. For me, I teach firefighting, and have prospects come in in their mid twenties with their parents, and bring their parents with them for grade disputes. If the student consents, I can discuss anything. The first thing I ask the student is, “So, you’re ready to be a firefighter, but you need your mom for a grade dispute?”
That’s terrible. A tough situation for both of you.
No access == no money!
Online diplomas ought to be good enough; when hired the new grad will sink or swim; what’s the difference.
There was a girl who was suppose to graduate from my college the year after I did (I went back to see a different person graduate)
On the day of the graduation ceremony she had to confess to her parents that she wasn't graduating because she didn't actually attend any classes for the last four years. She withdrew from her classes each semester and took the money the scholl refunded to her and spent it partying, shopping and various other stupid sh!t instead.
She was only an aquantance...but we were all stunned.....she was accually trying to get us to lie to her parents for her to cover up what she had done before she finally just confessed......
Unbelievable........how stupid some people can be hugh? I never did find out if she ever tried again to get her college education. And I always thought the parents should have sued the college for returning the money to the wrong payee each semester.....
OLD NEWS, been that way for a long time. You don’t find out your kid dropped out until it’s too late to do anything about preventing it.
Even better than that, she can be persuaded to sign the waiver by the ones who control the money: The parents.
As children age, the one challenge for parents is to identify and use the ever-dwindling levers of power to encourage good behavior, or, at least, safe and sensible behavior. Controlling the purse strings almost always appears on that list.
Excerpt for clarification:
According to the letter, “Upon a student’s matriculation into an undergraduate program … regardless of the student’s age, those rights [access to the child’s education records] transfer to the student.” We are certainly in favor of granting a level of responsibility to our children, especially since the large majority of undergraduate students have reached the age of majority – 18 years. However, the idea that parents should be forbidden from viewing their child’s grades, when they are paying for the child’s education, strikes us as being a step too far.
Apparently all of this springs from a federal law, know as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA was enacted by Congress to protect the privacy of student educational records and one key element states that schools must have written permission from the student in order to release any information from a student’s educational record.
So PARENTS you get the bill and your kids get to block you from seeing their grades. Another wedge between kids and their parents. This is dangerous.
“This has been going on for at least 10 years.”
Care to sbe specific on what colleges?
I’ve never heard of this before.
“This has been going on for at least 10 years.”
“Care to sbe specific on what colleges?
I’ve never heard of this before.”
This is federal law....not specific to a college.
“My kids handed over the password or we didn’t hand over the check.
End of story.”
THAT will be the policy here when she is in college.
When I was in college, I was eager to show them my grades. I worked hard and wanted them to see them. I paid half and they paid half. I had to work for it academically, financially and even drove an “old clunker” to college.
“This is federal law....not specific to a college.”
Even if the kid is still a MINOR?
When I went to college, I can’t imagine not showing off my grades.
When did this become a federal law?
I don’t remember this being an issue when I was in college .... I’m in my 50’s .... .
As someone else suggested, no password, no money from us for college.
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