FERPA Facts

Parents often want more information than school officials are legally able to give them. While most student affairs administrators welcome parental involvement and support, legal constraints under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and under many state "right to privacy" statutes often prevent administrators from effectively satisfying parents' requests.

What makes this most challenging is that under FERPA, parents have complete access to their child's K-12 school records. However, when their son or daughter enters college all FERPA rights, including the right to limit disclosure of any information to third parties (including parents), are transferred to their college student. Unfortunately, many parents don't learn of this change until there's a crisis or problem at school involving their child and a staff member tells them they aren't privy to certain information.

To be proactive, ask school officials how FERPA plays out on your student's campus.

What stance do they take when it comes to:

• IRS dependency?
• drug and alcohol notification?
• health and safety notification?

Campus administrators are bound by FERPA?it?s the law. To learn more, go to www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/parents.html.

Information provided by Karen L. Simpkins, J.D., the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs at Eastern Michigan University. Her legal specialty is Education/Campus Law.

The institution can not release the following items without the student’s permission:

• grades
• test scores
• student numbers or social security numbers
• financial records
• disciplinary records
• class schedule

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