I don’t know if it’s the best law but I can see it as a reasonable law. It’s certainly not a law that calls for resistance on the grounds of morality.
I’d say the school clearly acted legally (based on what I’ve been told about the law) and, in my opinion, ethically.
If the request was specifically about the English grade, then the school acted legally.
I do think the school should have a written policy, given to all parents, about what can happen if/when the child turns 18. It appears that this school had a policy of ignoring this change unless forced to acknowledge it by the student, doing the bare minimum when faced with such a request, and this policy did not include any standardized communication to the parents that their expected oversight role may change. This, to me, is a problem.
Also, kids talk. How many other 18yo’s did she tell, their parents also receiving the “no news is bad news” treatment? Irrelevant to this discussion, of course, but I would be surprised if this kid was the only one to make this request.
One thing I missed - was this a public school, or private? And would it matter?
My kid turns 18 the month after she starts her senior year and, thanks to this discussion I fired off an email to the VP asking them what their policy was re: students attaining adulthood (it’s also a private school, hence the above question). Thanks, Bricker.
IANAL, but my advice would have been for the school to send a letter somewhat like this:
Dear Parent,
We acknowledge receipt of your request dated xxx for your child’s grade(s). Unfortunately we cannot respond to your request as the academic records of students over the age of 18 are subject to the privacy protections of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99).
Regards,
I would be gobsmacked if anyone could be sued for that letter.
See above. The letter contains absolutely minimal information, and if the parents are aware that the privacy protection kicks in only if explicitly requested by the child, then so be it. You didn’t comment on my analogy. The school is just like the person legally protected from answering a question pretending that they’ve suddenly gone deaf. To my mind this is a totally unacceptable and dishonest behavior on an important matter. And useless, too. If the parents are going to draw inferences from the school’s explicit refusal to provide the daughter’s grades, are they not also going to draw inferences from the school’s persistent refusal to answer their mail or return their phone calls?
Yeah, I didn’t really think that one through. Sorry.
First of all they’d have to tell the parents the same thing even her grades were good. Now the odds are it is bad grades being concealed from parents but that’s not the school’s problem, it’s the girl’s problem, it’s her grades, her parents, and her change in behavior that tips off her parents.
If they were informed, do y’all feel like the counselors should have to resend out a form letter at every request? Because I’ve had situations like that, and after the first “I can’t discuss that”, I ignore later requests. I haven’t got time to have the same argument.
I was 18 for basically my entire senior year of high school, less maybe two weeks. (My birthday was right on the cusp of the cutoff date at the time where I could have always been either the youngest boy or the oldest boy in the class each year and my parents went with oldest. The start of the school year here has slowly moved up over the years from early September to about the middle of August.) I got no information, and as far as I know my parents didn’t either, about what my rights were as a legal adult attending a public high school and what policies still applied to me as an enrolled student. I suppose it might have been available somewhere, or perhaps in a handbook thing everyone got and never looked at. I actually did find the PDF of the local public system’s student handbook for the last year, but as far as I can tell there is nothing about the rights of an adult student. There is guidance on FERPA in that document.
Okay, this is the part of the law that is relevant:
(quoted @ Age of Majority | Center for Parent Information and Resources )
So the family was formally notified over a year ago that upon turning 18, educational rights transfer to the child and that a parent can’t even attend a meeting without the now-adult’s consent. The law says you have to notify the child, but when they are 17 that involves notifying the whole family. I promise they signed paperwork acknowledging this.
ETA: I read my own quote. The IEP must contain the statement. The parents sign that IEP. They were absolutely told that once she reached 18 she would have control over her own educational rights, including the right to privacy.
I suspect that if I called my nephew’s school and asked how he was doing in English class, someone would tell me, “Under FERPA, I can’t give you that information.”
If I pressed, they could tell me, “Only the legal guardians of a minor can gain that information, and you’re not the legal guardian of a minor.”
If I said my sister gave me permission, they might say, “We’d need written permission from the legal guardian before giving you that information.”
It seems to me that a very similar conversation could happen here:
“I’m sorry, but under FERPA, I can’t give you that information. Although you’re the parent of the student, the student is 18, and without written permission from the student, I cannot pass that information along to you.”
That’s not any more information than I’d get if I asked for information about my nephew (or a neighbor, for that matter), so I don’t think it violates the kid’s confidentiality. Certainly the school shouldn’t have ruined the girl’s surprise for her parents, but they should’ve let the parents know that their lack of information was because they no longer had access to that information.
I gave the article a second read and also checked the US DOE FERPA guidelines and an article from the Seattle Times. Relevant to this discussion:
• Parents who declare children as dependents on the previous year’s taxes do have the right to view their child’s academic record, but only if they provide proof to the school.
•The school is obligated to tell students and parents of the rules in a general way, such as in a student handbook or on a school calendar but is not obligated to tell each student’s parents individually.
• [A district spokesperson
Finally, remember we’re only getting the parents’ side of the story. The school can’t comment without violating FERPA.
The school acted correctly, both legally and ethically IMO.
But how the ever loving fuck do you flunk English?
My parents never saw a permission slip from my Highschool. I reasoned that it was unlikely that they kept certified copies of their signatures on file and had a graphologist compare each slip’s signature. I was never caught and I believe the statute of limitations has long expired (if not, could a moderator delete my confession?).
But at some point they HAD told them that. If you kept emailing the school asking about your nephew, do you think they’d continue to respond?
Sure. It is the default. Until I tell my kids to give me their school grades login information.
By blowing it off.
In a perfect world, everyone would read all the forms that they sign and pause to make sure they understood them and ask questions about anything that confused them.
In the IEP meetings I’ve attended, there’ve been parents who are uncomfortable and intimidated and confused and who will sign anything that’s put in front of them just to get out of there. We try not to make that happen, but sometimes despite our efforts that’s how parents respond to the meetings.
If someone should know something because they signed a piece of paper saying they knew it, I’d rather err on the side of repeating the information to them than err on the side of assuming they understood the thing they said they understood.
The age of majority thing is a pretty big part of the IEP process at the end of high school: the parent isn’t going to just not notice that they are no longer “in the loop” regarding their child’s education. It’s not just a “sign here”–there is a full year lead up of warnings and notifications and such (so that parents that want to petition for guardianship have sufficient time to do so).
We also don’t know how many times or in what context the parents were informed. We don’t know if the daughter specifically told the school not to discuss any aspect of her English grade with her parents and if they erred on the side of respecting her rights. The school can’t say. All we know is the parents say they sent two emails that weren’t responded to. There are clearly massive problems in this household–the girl lied to her parents all semester, and then was scared to tell her parents until the 11th hour, and her parent’s response to the situation is to sue the district? It’s not like irreparable harm has been done: she can go to summer school and still graduate and attend college in the fall. And unless this was dramatically out of character for this girl, the sort of post-secondary institution she’s likely going to is unlikely to rescind an acceptance over it. (Kids who fail senior English probably weren’t rocking straight A’s to date, and probably are going to a less selective school in any case).
You send them a letter telling them their child has not gotten any younger since their previous letter.
“Parents Upset: School Is Dismissive and Condescending.”
Do you have an ethical responsibility to do that? How many times?
At some point, I just ignore people after I’ve told them I can’t help them and directed them to the person that can.
Could you call the student in, and explain that his/her parents keep asking about the grades, and then see if there is a problem at home?