I have to reserve for parent’s weekend, but I am okay with us staying up to 30 minutes away. His college is not in a huge city where traffic will be an issue, but large enough that there are hotels near the airport if need be.
We were invited to a “first year parent reception” with “light hors d’oeuvres and beverages” with one of the highest paid college presidents. We need to respondez-vous s’il vous plait, natch…
I would think both you and the adult child should have a copy of the HIPAA, as well as a POA if you choose to do one. If child is incapacitated (which is when you really need it), they won’t be able to provide a HIPAA form or authorization on the spot, and you’ll be in the dark as to what’s going on.
Not for everyone, but Nolo.com is a start: http://www.nolo.com/products/power-of-attorney
See, that makes sense, @Cameron121. I should have a copy (and I don’t have a copy of either of my sons’ HIPAAs) for exactly the reason you say. I never understood how it worked. Yeah, my oldest signed it, but so what? If he goes to the hospital, how will they know he’s signed it? I mean, I would only expect to be notified by his girlfriend at this point, but for my middle son, it’s particularly important that I be kept abreast of my 2015er’s health issues, if at all possible, when he goes away. (But it might not be possible; still, I’ll be meeting with disability office and maybe I’ll figure out what I need to know at that time)
So, it seems completing HIPAA will be enough if I want to just get notified for child’s health considerations? HIPAA won’t let me take medical decisions for him?
@cd2015 yes, that is just to be informed about his medical history/current issues.
For legal documents, we used legalzoom.com–talked to a lawyer from the state where her college is located–and had paperwork for power of attorney and medical power of attorney created. Signed with a notary public in our own state. DD is a legal adult at 18. The medical power of attorney is overkill, but that document was so respected at the hospital when my dad died, I wanted it as well.
@sbjdorlo DD had to sign a FERPA form to allow info from disabilities office to be released to a third party, including her parents. It is like a HIPAA, but for educational entities, rather than medical entities. She has to resign it every semester; they gave her the form during orientation, and I’m hoping they’ll offer it up every semester, as she’ll be too busy to think about it. I also hope they never need to contact me 
My daughter’s school offered release docs on her student portal for the health center, grades, financial accounts, etc. All she had to do was check to release information and then indicate who has access. I’m still having her complete a HIPAA form, but this was a good start.
Wow, I learnt a lot here in just a few messages… I had power of attorney on my radar but never even thought of HIPAA… Thank you, everyone!
Printed the HIPAA form, and calling a couple of lawyers tomorrow. Today we drove down to Ann Arbor, had lunch and walked around and found all his classes. He is getting really excited!
We do have our kids fill out a HIPAA, Medical POA, and Durable POA just to be on the safe side. Additionally…it kind of hits home with them that they are now adults making adult decisions…hopefully they will be responsible ones.
This time last year I was bugging my kid about starting her essays.
Man, I’m glad the application/waiting/deciding/FA part of this is over.
Now I am bugging my kid about summer reading.
@bopper we don’t appear to have summer reading, first time in 8 years! There is a novel the whole freshman class is to read but she enjoyed that and did it early in June.
Ha! D does have a summer reading assignment, one book the entire class will read, but I’m not bugging her. That’s on her now.
I’ve been told by a lot of college professors and others in the college community that one of the hardest things for parents to learn when their kids go off to college is that they no longer have any legal right to their children’s medical, educational, or other information. If the student doesn’t want to tell the parents what is going on, that student doesn’t have to. That includes information about financial aid, academic probation, housing, and anything else.
I knew one anthropology professor who has a policy of dropping a student one letter grade if a parent called the professor to inquire about grades, projects, or the student’s attendance.
When parents are paying the bills it only makes sense for the student to keep the parents informed. But when they don’t except for ending funding, there is nothing parents can do. And as a “returning student” in my late 30s, I ran into a surprising number of students who didn’t care to be in school and failed out without telling their parents, who knew nothing until they simply didn’t get the next bill. These young people went to college because they were expected to, and stayed only as long as the bills were paid before heading off to “find themselves.” An awful lot of them seemed to end up working as baristas at nearby Starbucks.
Speaking of students not telling their parents that they’d dropped out of school, do you remember this incident from last year?
Former Quinnipiac student Danielle Shea, who called in a bomb threat at last year’s graduation…had told her relatives she would be graduating, so when they noticed her name was not on the graduation roster, she called in the bomb threat in an attempt to cancel the ceremony.
http://www.quchronicle.com/2015/04/former-student-who-called-graduation-bomb-threat-to-pay-qu/
Both kiddo’s schools publish their semester Dean’s list on the web. And both know there better be a healthy explanation for why one isn’t listed. That’s worked well for us, so far, for D '12 (only 1 semester of 6 required any explaining).