FERPA (Academic Privacy) Question

Emaheevul07
Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:36:02 +0000

Missypie-- I have a person that works in the disabilities office who works with me on staying organized and makes sure that communication between me and my professors about my disabilities runs smoothly-- I have had some issues where I have been really sick and missed tons of classes or I had a foreign professor who didn’t understand my disabilities, that kind of thing. I would guess that if I asked her to help me set up this kind of an arrangement she would-- my professors would be in contact with her, and her with either myself or my parents. Perhaps the disabilities office would be willing to work with you somehow on this. That seems more likely than putting you directly into contact with his professors, and then professors might be more willing to discuss the issues you are worried about. Or perhaps, if he is able to handle it, he could have a person in the disabilities office that he is responsible for handing in graded work to so that information can be shared with you. Even if my university didn’t hire someone specifically for these kinds of things, I would be willing to bet someone in the office would be willing to help somehow. The program at my school is not known for being particularly good at caring for students with asperger’s, in fact quite the opposite, but sometimes there is some wiggle room that allows you to get what you need anyway if you can just talk to the right person. Maybe it’s the same at your S’s school.

And an idea here that is kind of out of left field, if you have copies of his syllabi and know he should be getting assignments back, if you set him up with a scanner in his room you can look at the syllabus to see what you should be getting from him and ask for it. What with my chronic illness, I often have to use a scanner to email professors my assignments-- and I use it to email medical paperwork home to my parents. That doesn’t really help with exams he may not be allowed to keep or with attendance issues, but may be better than nothing. You could even request class notes to see if he went. If he completely fell off the map, you’d have some idea. Better than nothing.