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Hello, and welcome to "Coffee with Cassie's Mom",
where we discuss how you can be involved with your son or daughter's journey in becoming a successful college student.
Today, I'm here with Leslie Quinn, a registrar at JCCC. Hi, thank you for having me.
It's so nice to have you, today. I was just thinking back when my kids were in high school,
I could just call up and find anything about their behavior. I could check into their academic status anytime I wanted to.
But, I noticed there was a really dramatic difference, once they went to college, and there was a word called "FERPA".
I'd like you to tell me what that is, and what the difference is between high school and college privacy information.
Absolutely, and I don't think you're alone about the sudden realization that things change when people get into college.
A lot of parents have had a lot of access to information in high school, and they're very involved in the front line of their child's education.
It does shift when a person enters a post- secondary institution, so once you go to college, even if you're still a minor,
you are suddenly imbued with rights that give you a certain amount of control over the release of your information. That is what FERPA is.
It's the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, from all the way back from 1974, so it's been around for a long time.
Its purpose is to allow students to have access to their information,
to request amendment of their record if they feel there's something that's in error,
and it gives them a certain amount of control over how that information is released.
So, what that means to you as a parent is that instead of being able to just call up the school and say,
"I'm just checking on my son or daughter. How are they doing in your class?", you really can't do that once they get into college.
At that point, it's the student who has the control over how information is released.
If I was concerned about my students grades, for example, how would I be able to find out what is happening?
Are you saying the student is the only way I could find that out?
That is a really excellent question, and a question I get a lot.
One of the things that I like to talk to parents about is the transition
in terms of how you are becoming more of a support system for the student, once they go to college.
A lot of times, parents are much more in the driver's seat of the educational process in high school,
and so part of that transition when a student goes from high school to college
is learning about how they need to go about handling their own processes in college.
How do they need to get their transcript, or what conversation shouldn't they be having with their instructors to find out what their grades are.
So it really becomes the student who is now in charge of acting on those processes.
One of the best things you can do as a parent is to really encourage and support them to go seek out that information,
find out what the correct process is, and then go and do that.
There definitely are ways that you can have your student give consent for you to have access to information.
Could you share some of those ways where a student can give consent?
Sure. The the only way they can give consent is in writing,
so we actually have an access authorization to release information form.
If your son or daughter wanted to give consent for you to have information on their academic record,
their financial information or anything else, they can actually give that consent in writing.
Then, once they turn that in, that would allow you to have a conversation with someone like me,
or to be able to call and inquire about a balance that's owed on their account, different things like that.
But again, this is really the time for them to be learning how to take those steps on their own,
so i really like to encourage parents to [in turn] encourage their son or daughter to take those steps on their own.
I know when my daughter went here to JCCC, we helped with her finances, so she gave us consent in order to talk to [a counselor]
if there was any problems.
But where would we tell our students to go to get these forms and how to fill them out? Do you have any suggestions?
Yes, absolutely. They're actually available on our website, so if they wanted to print off the form from the web,
they could just go to the website and type in "authorization to release information", and it should come up as a link.
The other way is just to come in person and get the form in the Student Success Center. That's on the second floor of the Student Center.
When they turn in the form, though, it does have to be the student, and they do need to show a photo ID when they turn the form in.
If they're not able to bring the form in person, than it has to be accompanied by a copy of their photo ID.
That's just another way that we're protecting the confidentiality of student records.
We just want to make sure that the student is actually the one that's giving consent.
So if they can't turn it in themselves, you're saying they need to bring the form and a copy of their ID?
Correct, that's right. The student signature has to be there, and then a copy of their photo ID has to be attached.
That just helps us make sure that this is really the student themselves [that has] actually given the consent.
That is very interesting. Do you have any other things that we need to know about the privacy act?
No. I just think it's great that you're asking the question.
A lot of parents are very taken aback by that change, and they're not they don't see that coming.
A lot of times, it's because they're so used to feeling in charge of that process,
that it can almost feel a little daunting when their son or daughter goes to college.
It's great to be thinking ahead on these things in advance,
and preparing your child for the fact that [he or she is] really going to be in the driver's seat on this college education,
so [you're] here to support [him or her], you're here to help [them] when [they] need it, but ultimately the ownership is [theirs],
and you're just helping them get through that process as a support.
Sounds like you're jump-starting us into allowing our kids to go from children to adults?
In a way, yeah, and that's really kind of one of the goals of the time that we spend in college,
is to make that successful launch into adulthood. It's a great way of saying that.
And this is a great place to do it. The first two years are really critical, and they changed so much in their maturation level,
so those are some great tips on what we can do to move our kid along into adulthood, and just the different privacy rules that we need to follow
in order to get the information.
I appreciate you saying that, because one assurance that I would give to parents is this is really an excellent place,
and one thing you can trust about JCCC is we care a great deal about the success of our students.
If they are struggling or if they're having an issue that they need some help with, send them back to us.
We will connect them, and we'll try to figure out what we need to do to help them solve the problem.
That's one thing I really noticed about Johnson County: the teachers, the registrars,
everyone that my kids have dealt with here at Johnson County have been so helpful and so informative,
and they really want students to have success here, and that's just such a great attitude and a great thing for an academic facility
It's a joy. We enjoy the work, because we like to help people grow and see them succeed.
We love coming here every day, just to be able to do that.
Well, thank you for being so passionate about helping our kids to succeed. Definitely, anytime.
That's all for now. For other tips, go to Johnson County's website, and click on the "Coffee with Cassie's Mom" menu;
and for your students, they can find other videos and insights on "Coffee with Cassie.
Until next time, remember: Mother Theresa said, "Peace begins with a smile".
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