FERPA for Parents

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) as amended is a federal law intended to protect the privacy of student educational records accumulated from early childhood through college. FERPA provides parents with certain rights with respect to their children's educational records; however, once a student reaches the age of 18 or enrolls in college regardless of age, the rights previously held by the parents transfer exclusively to the student.

Ordinarily, parents of Waubonsee Community College students obtain information about their child's records, including grades, directly from them. The college may release information to the parents if the student has submitted written consent to allow the disclosure of their records to parents. If a student chooses to do this, then they should complete A FERPA Authorization for Release of Information, which can be found on mywcc.

Students can set up parents as authorized users in Waubonsee's online payment system if students wish to have their parents make a direct payment on their account. The payment of a student's tuition by the parent does not, by itself, give that parent the right of access to a student's record.

Once approved documentation is on file, inquiries can be made to the appropriate departments with proper identification. Please note, there may be cases when the college may refuse to disclose information even with a valid release.

More information related to the FERPA regulation is available on the U.S Department of Education's website.