18yo - No HS Diploma Yet

[mistoffolees]

>Yes. This is true but in order for children at any age to
>receive support THEY are bound by giving out what the states
>requires them to give out. If not then they don't get
>support.

Bound by who? Neither the state nor the college (nor your local divorce judge) can overrule the Federal privacy laws.

Yes, you can get your divorce decree to say that you don't pay without the information, but that does not allow the school to give out the information. It simply requires the student to give the information if they want support. Your divorce court can NOT tell the school to ignore Federal privacy laws.

[HD Dad]

Mistofoless,

It appears you have been through a lot of pain on this topic and I am sorry for this. If the laws are not worth the paper that they are written on then it is what it is. I can ONLY quote what it is, or appears to be, in the state of Washington. I am ignorant of laws of other states.

This is what the Washington State law says:

RCW 26.09.225 Access to child's education and health care records.

(1) Each parent shall have full and equal access to the education and health care records of the child absent a court order to the contrary. Neither parent may veto the access requested by the other parent.

(2) Educational records are limited to academic, attendance, and disciplinary records of public and private schools in all grades kindergarten through twelve and any form of alternative school for all periods for which child support is paid or the child is the dependent in fact of the parent requesting access to the records.

(3) Educational records of postsecondary educational institutions are limited to enrollment and academic records necessary to determine, establish, or continue support ordered pursuant to RCW 26.19.090. <1991 sp.s. c 28 § 3; 1990 1st ex.s. c 2 § 18; 1987 c 460 § 17.>

[spinner]

I would file for a CS hearing asking to stop CS, ...
she'll need to come up with the proof

[HelpingHands]

I would file to terminate the child support and quote those statutes. The other party will then have to produce sufficient evidence showing that this child is still enrolled, correct? You will show that you've requested the documentation with no success and therefore believe that the child no longer attends school  because they have provided you with no verification.

What will happen if you withheld payments(I would probably put it in an escrow account with the court)? They'd have to go to court to prove the child is still in school and should still receive payments, correct? Can you provide copies of your child's withdrawl request?

[lucky]

Odd, isn't it?  I worked in the business office of the local state university for about 2 years and I don't know how many parents called for info and ended up royally pissed off at me because I couldn't give them any.

Odder yet?  If a parent called to pay the tuition bill by credit card, I could take the credit card information from them but [em]could not[/em] give them the amount I'd just charged to their card.  We all told them anyway (damned if I'd pay for something when I didn't know how much it was and I wasn't about to expect someone else to do it either), but could have lost our jobs if students had complained.

[em]Lucky

Lead your life so you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.
- Will Rogers[em]

[HD Dad]

Helping Hands,

Good advice.

Another Topic:

I am trying to get on the Washington State Forum but when I go there I cannot get any of the threads to appear....as I do here.

SPARC Mangagement has been very helpful in responding to my emails. Solutions. Sorry if this isn't the place for this......I really want to get to my States Forum. Can't get any of the states forums to come up.

[mistoffolees]

First, most of those statues apply to high school. Since your child is now in college, they're not going to apply.

The last one does apply to post-secondary, but it's dated 1991. I suspect that you'll find that the federal laws have trumped them unless you have a court order to the contrary.

I could be wrong, though. You'll probably have to see an attorney to get the facts.

A less expensive alternative would be to send the college a copy of #3 (ignore #1 and 2 since they apply to grades K-12) along with a request for the records. They'll either send you the records or tell you why they can't. That will save you research.

[mistoffolees]

>Odd, isn't it?  I worked in the business office of the local
>state university for about 2 years and I don't know how many
>parents called for info and ended up royally pissed off at me
>because I couldn't give them any.
>
>Odder yet?  If a parent called to pay the tuition bill by
>credit card, I could take the credit card information from
>them but [em]could not[/em] give them the amount I'd
>just charged to their card.  We all told them anyway (damned
>if I'd pay for something when I didn't know how much it was
>and I wasn't about to expect someone else to do it either),
>but could have lost our jobs if students had complained.
>
>[em]Lucky

Yes, I always thought it was odd, but who says that Federal laws need to make any sense?

I understand the student's right to privacy, but it seems to me that they earn that right when they become independent - not before. As long as they're living in my household and I'm paying for their education, I should be able to see their grades and financial records.

Of course, Washington never asked my opinion on the matter.

[Kitty C.]

......and that is if the child/adult signs a release of information allowing the parent to have access.  This is what DS's HS asked us to do if DS wanted me to be involved (which he did, of course).  Without it, they couldn't give me ANYTHING.

[mistoffolees]

>......and that is if the child/adult signs a release of
>information allowing the parent to have access.  This is what
>DS's HS asked us to do if DS wanted me to be involved (which
>he did, of course).  Without it, they couldn't give me
>ANYTHING.

Absolutely. The adult child can always sign permission.

In practice, it's often more convenient for them to get their own copy and send you a copy if you don't have any concerns about falsification (my ex-step-daughter once changed the grades on her transcript, so we made her sign permission for the school to send US the grades).