Everyone’s heard of HIPAA, but what about FERPA? FERPA stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and it’s only one of many things that should be nearing the top of your to-do list if your kid is in college.
Once they reach the age of 18, the law no longer sees our kids as kids, and some parents find themselves running into a brick wall just trying to do what they normally do. Most importantly, medical records are now restricted from you unless your child expressly named you in a health care proxy or a living will — or filled out a HIPAA waiver at the hospital. Advanced directives like living wills and health care proxies offer the advantage of bestowing decision-making power on you even if your loved one is unconscious.
HIPAA’s bookish cousin, FERPA, is likewise a law that establishes privacy rights, but there are waivers. You would need those waivers to access transcripts, disciplinary records, scholarship information, and tuition balance. FERPA also adds a layer of protection at school health clinics, extending its privacy protections to student health records. This is where it gets tricky: to access records at a university health clinic, you must have a FERPA waiver and a HIPAA waiver.
FERPA waivers are available in the school’s financial office or, presumably, their websites.
While it is possible to do all of these things on the fly, having a FERPA waiver or an informed advanced directive — health care proxy or living will — ensures that it will happen. It also presents you with a prompt to go over your insurance policies and see if anything changed when your kid turned into an adult. There may be even more fun paperwork in your future!
At JHA, we love saving money for our clients, especially if it involves a fine-print mystery. Contact us for help!
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