<p>It’s interesting that the article only seemed to get one response and was out in February of this year.</p>
<p>I do think whatever the policy is for a college, they should let it be known, and at our son’s U, the policy was that college students of ANY age (dependent or not) had privacy rights unless the student waived it, or at least this was how it was stated to us by several people working at the U (including the Honors College director, I believe), so my guess is their understanding of the law wasn’t clear. My husband and I happen to believe that if a student is under 18 or is a dependent whose college bills are being paid even in part by the parents, the parents should have a right to know what the child’s grades are (and that the child is indeed enrolled and passing classes). Ideally, children would just give that information to parents (as our son has, but it’s likely been easier for him as his grades have been high), but in the case of the girl from U of Alabama who had a 3.6 GPA her first year at age 15 and then got caught up in sex and drugs and got a 1.9 GPA and was tossed off the campus while her parents were never informed of any of this (and we continuing to pay her room and board as her scholarship only covered tuition), that was nuts (especially as the U promised the parents they would look after the girl, and had heard rumors of what was going on with her well before she got the 1.9 GPA).</p>