<p>I think parents should be able to see grades and get copies of the tuition bill, as we’re paying for everything. What form does our student have to sign in order to get this information?</p>
<p>I believe what you are referring to is the FERPA which stands for Family Educational Rights Privacy Act.</p>
<p>[Family</a> Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)](<a href=“http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html]Family”>Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA))</p>
<p>I think you mean a release. There’s no set form for it. It should just be something like this:</p>
<p>To the Registrar:
You are hereby authorized to release copies of my transcripts to the following:
Mom & Dad’s names
Home Address
Anywhere, US</p>
<p>You are also authorized to speak with them about my grades and any other information under your control.</p>
<p>This release is valid from today’s date until revoked.</p>
<p>Thank you,
Student</p>
<p>The registrar may require the letter to be notarized. Have your student give you a copy so you can fax it to them if necessary.</p>
<p>Then a similar one goes to the bursar’s office.</p>
<p>We merely asked our son how he did at the end of each freshman year semester when he came home. After a reasonably good frosh year the question was never asked though he usually volunteered it at some point in time. </p>
<p>Btw, all grade reports at his college were on line, never a paper or email transcript. Now if we had requested a grade report, assuming that was possible, maybe then we would have gotten it w/o accessing his personal college portal.</p>
<p>This choice was just one more step in giving him more adult responsibilities and letting go. Now if he had done poorly that first semester that may have altered our decision. Maybe.</p>
<p>As far as I’m concerned, if you’re helping pay for your student’s college ed, then the form is your checkbook.</p>
<p>FERPA! That’s the term I wanted! Thanks.</p>
<p>I’m going to have to agree with originaloog. If you need to have that piece of paper, then your communicaton with your child has a problem.</p>
<p>I wasn’t helping my student pay for college as a control issue. It was my gift to them. What they chose to do with it was up to them. I too may have had a different opinion had things not gone as well.</p>
<p>I’m just thinking about logistics, not any means of control. If we don’t have the form in place, my son will have to remember to forward everything to us, including tuition bills. Other than grades and bills, what other items would FERPA cover?</p>
<p>Earlier this semester, my son’s Academic Competiveness Grant was revoked (too many credits transferred in when he was dual enrolled in high school). They wouldn’t speak to me about his financial aid without son signing a form.</p>
<p>What needs to be signed for medical information to be released in case of emergency?</p>
<p>Most schools send the tuition bills to the home address, toledo. It’s got the student’s name, but it comes to your home. They know where their bread is buttered!</p>
<p>For medical information, you just need something similar to what I wrote above, but indicating that this is medical information that can be released. (The statute in that case is HIPAA, not FERPA.)</p>
<p>Neither of my son’s schools send tuition bills to the home address. It is all done electronically and the parent has to sign up to see the account. Kind of annoying, but once the kid adds the parent as a user, you are good to go.</p>
<p>My S has been to more than one school.</p>
<p>One had a form that covered both grade release and health information release. One had no form that I am aware of.</p>
<p>Our S has always shared grades with us (good, bad and ugly), even without the form, by forwarding online information etc.</p>
<p>Re getting the bills: both schools for my S (and a third for my step grand son whom we are helping) have electronic “Authorized Payer” systems. Your kid signs you up (or you do), you get a password and you can see the account. They also seem to send Authorized Payers emails letting them know a bill is now due. (How sweet 
).</p>
<p>toledo - the law that prevents you from seeing the information is FERPA. The release form would be individual to each school.</p>
<p>But my daughter’s school is the same as some above. The grades are posted online - not mailed to anyone. She did not sign a release - she just tells us. Also I was the one that set up her online student information system password(she was at a boarding school and did not have much internet access at the time) - she has left the password the same as there is nothing on there she does not want me to see plus she occasionally wants me to go on and check stuff out or do stuff for her - like the class that was full and she wanted me to check through the day while she was in class to see if a spot came open (which it did) or financial aid information.</p>
<p>As far as bursars bill - an email is sent to her and to us. I think we can get a guest pass to access the online bill (seperate to the other online stuff) but she just gave us her code and password and I access it that way.</p>
<p>Medical stuff - she calls us because she puts it on the credit card so she calls to let us know she has charged something. Plus she will usually call before anyway for advice.</p>
<p>I don’t see individual grades for tests etc. I can usually guess - if she has told me she has a big exam and calls me soon afterward it means she did great, if it takes a bit longer she did ok, if I don’t hear then not so good. I am learning to back off - getting better at it every day. Finally told myself it is her ballgame now. She has a good scholarship - full tuition plus a chunk of cash - that she needs a certain GPA to maintain - if she loses that she knows *she *will have to take loans out. She has it locked in for her sophomore year so I am breathing easier. We do have a friend whose son had the same scholarship and lost it the first year so I was a little worried at first.</p>
<p>Before our S began his freshman year, we had him sign all the forms that the school had, for us to view medical bills & give authority for medical issues if he were unable, to get financial info, access to grades, etc. It was FERPA & the school had us all fill out a huge # of forms. We were even given an on-line account so we could view his on-line stuff. We rarely need to do so, but it’s good to know that we can have access as needed.</p>
<p>Ask the school–they should be able to get you the forms that are appropriate for the campus. Each school’s forms are a bit different & it helps to use the ones the school perfers rather than creating your own. We were also able to get S’s student health insurance fee waived by sending in appropriate proof that he’s covered under the family plan, saving us a few hundred $/term each year (have to submit the form each fall).</p>
<p>Our kids both completed the FERPA form. It had NOTHING to do with grades ane EVERYTHING to do with billing. They didn’t want to have to troubleshoot mistakes made by the bursar’s office…so they signed so we could speak to them. AND there have been errors. Without that signature, the KIDS would have been dealing with the billing issues. They both print out their grades for us every term. It’s never been an issue.</p>
<p>Thumper makes a good point. If you kid signs the FERPA, that means his grades and billing stuff is available to you. Since he’s going to be making good grades anyway, and you already said you’re paying, doesn’t seem like any problem. He should sign it.</p>
<p>An interesting side note though: Some schools (such as mine) include legal stuff in with the stuff that is released due to FERPA. When a friend of mine got an MIP that she didn’t want her parents to find, she called the school to ask if they would be notified. Turns out her parents were only notified if she had signed the FERPA (which she had), but if she checked one box then it would prevent her legal information from being released. I guess she “gamed the system” a little bit because her parents never found out, but if you want to have full disclosure from your kids you may want to see exactly what they’re withholding from you with that FERPA release.</p>
<p>What’s a MIP? Never heard of that particular abbreviation. Thanks.</p>
<p>Whoops–just looked it up, “minor in possession [of alcohol].” Am hoping this will never be something my kids have any interest in but who knows?</p>
<p>In addition to grades and billing information, it is probably wise to have your child sign a release for medical information. Otherwise, if your child was in the school infirmary/medical center and unable to call you, the school would not be prohibited from informing inform you or discussing medical information with you. For that, I believe that you need to have a separate release and probably it would be wise to have a health care proxy form – and maybe a power of attorney applicable if the child is having significant problems.</p>
<p>Others may feel differently about this, but when S signed the medical information release, he and I spoke about it a bit. I wanted him to know that he could rescind it case by case, so that if he needed to seek medical attention for a physical or mental health issue, but wanted to keep it private, he could do that.</p>
<p>Personally, I wanted him to know I respected him enough that I don’t need to always be looking over his shoulder. I also wanted him to seek mental health care if needed, or care for some physical issue that he needn’t/didn’t want to share with Mom and Dad, without hesitation for fear of disclosure to us.</p>
<p>I do think the medical information release is terribly important for the kind of health issue that might arise where they need advice, and we would not be in a position to advise without talking directly to health care professionals. </p>
<p>S did have mono second term freshman year, right at exam time. It was helpful that I could call the Health Service and arrange to have his records faxed so that we could give them to his local doctor. He was very sick, without energy and it was a lot easier for me to do this than for him to add it to his plate. Couldn’t have done even that simple secretarial task without the release.</p>
<p>I had that same conversation with my kids before leaving for school. I didn’t want them to avoid seeking any kind of medical attention just because Mom might find out. Pretty sure it was never used, but I wanted them to know of the possibility. In other words, should they have too much to drink I wouldn’t want them or their friends to hesitate to take them to the hospital for fear of parents finding out. Or to get a test for an STD. Again, I’m pretty sure the need never arose, but I would sure hate for them to hesitate to get that kind of care.</p>
<p>As for the grades, I just asked them. The billing they could give me access to and they did.</p>