My husband and I just got back from day one of the Freshmen Orientation for the college our daughter will be attending this Fall. We left our house at 6:15 in the morning and returned home at 8:00 this evening. Our daughter had to spend the night in the Freshmen dorm; we will see her tomorrow on day two.We sat through talks on what our children will have ahead of them, what the university has to offer and mostly how we will pay for the education. During one of these talks the speaker informed us about something called the Family Educational Rights to Privacy Act 1974 (FERPA). This states that the college student's school information (like grades) may not be released to anyone, not even the parents who are footing the bill. Once your son or daughter is an adult (18 years old) the information is theirs. They have to sign an authorization to release education records to a third party if they choose to do so. OMG! Our daughter chose to do so (she chose wisely).
What really made me think OMG was when they said, "your adult children's school information..."
ADULT CHILDREN!?!
OMG! I am the parent of an adult child...well almost...my daughter will not be 18 until mid-July...still...OMG!
There is just something wrong when parents are unable to monitor their DEPENDENT children because they are blocked by a "privacy act".
ReplyDeleteAnd "Adult Children", to me, is an oxymoron.