While more than a handful of parents decide to let students keep their grades private once they’re in college, your parents might be among the many who still want to see your grades. But now that you’re legally an adult, doesn’t it mean that you have the right to keep them private if you want to? Many collegiettes still face pressure from their parents to give them access to their academic records, and it’s a fight that can often strike a few sensitive chords.
This is why FERPA, or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, exists! Unfortunately, not all students are familiar with FERPA and the rights it gives both students and parents. However, it’s important for you to know what FERPA is and how it works so you can protect your privacy.
What is FERPA?
FERPA is a federal law put in place to protect students’ education records. While most of this is directory information, like a student’s registered name, there are rules that apply to who can and can’t have access to a student’s records.
What rules are we talking about? First, the most important section of FERPA states that once a student turns 18, he or she is the only one besides his or her school administration who can access his or her academic records without permission from the student if the student goes to a school that receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education. This means that all state universities automatically fall under FERPA, but in practice, all private universities do, too, especially since they use financial aid programs like Pell Grants and guaranteed student loans.
Because of FERPA, your college isn’t allowed to show anyone else your transcript unless you clearly agree to it. Everyone else who wants to see your transcript—your parents included—needs to get permission from you, or else they would officially be violating a law that gives you the right to control your own information.
Of course, there are always exceptions! When it comes to your grades, there are four that apply, according to NYU’s FERPA officer, Barnett Hamberger:
- If a university employee needs to see your grades to do their job.
- If someone needs your grades for any financial aid procedures.
- If you’re applying to transfer to another college.
- If your parents listed you as a “dependent” on their tax form. By listing you as a dependent, your parents are proving to the government that you’re still not financially independent, but even then, colleges can choose to still keep your grades from your parents.
How Do Colleges Enforce FERPA?
Colleges are completely aware of FERPA’s laws and uphold them out of respect to students’ privacy. The vast majority of colleges have online, individualized accounts that only you can access with an ID and a password. Colleges NEVER give out student passwords to parents, meaning that only you and the college can access all this academic information. Many colleges have very strict FERPA rules: for example, at NYU, they don’t even release student directory information without the student’s permission.
But some colleges give parents an easier way to access your grades. At UNC-Chapel Hill, for example, parents can go to an online form that lets them list a student under the dependent status talked about before. Remember, if your parents list you as a “dependent,” they’ll have a more direct route to getting a hold of your grades, even if they have to go through your school.
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What Does FERPA Mean for You?
“For the student, FERPA means that the institution has to take very seriously the protection of the privacy of their records,” explains Hamberger. “At NYU, we lean toward a strict interpretation of FERPA and the protection of student privacy. It also means that a former student who wants access to his or her records has to provide evidence of their identity before we will provide them with the information. Nor is everyone at NYU entitled to all student information if the specific item requested is not needed for the person to do their job.”
What FERPA ultimately does is give you control over your own information. When you turn 18, you’re legally an adult, so just like any adult, you get to decide who can see your private records even where school is concerned. In the vast majority of cases, YOU get to make the final call on whether or not you want to give your parents the information they need to access your college files.
Of course, there’s still the situation where you could be listed as a dependent student, which would again give your parents the right to bypass you for your transcripts. If you think that your parents are going to try and register you as a dependent student, you definitely need to have a talk with them if that’s not something you want to happen. You need to ultimately remind them that even though the law has made exceptions, they do still need to respect your decision to keep your academic records private.
What Does FERPA Mean for Your Parents?
“For parents, who had the FERPA rights rather than the student when their child was in elementary and secondary school, and who might feel that university officials should automatically tell them how their child is doing in college because they are the ones paying the tuition, it means they cannot easily obtain that information if their child does not provide it to them,” says Hamberger. “Even if the parents demonstrate dependency as noted above, that does not mean the institution has to provide the information requested.”
What this means is that if your parents want to see your grades, the easiest way by far is to go through you. Whether it’s getting you to sign a form that gives them the login details to your online college account or handing them over yourself, parents do have ways to get to your grades, but they don’t have a direct way to get them unless both you and your college approve. If they really did want to, your parents can apply to make you a “dependent student” if they’re paying for your tuition and financially supporting you. But again, it’s still not a guaranteed way for them to access any of your academic records.
At the end of the day, FERPA makes sure that you’re the one who has power over who gets to see your grades. While there are exceptions, most people need to go through you to access your academic records, including your parents.