FERPA
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1976: FERPA
FERPA guarantees the privacy of a student’s educational records. When a student enters a post-secondary institution, the access rights to educational records previously held by parents/guardians are now transferred to the student.
More information: U.S. Department of Education - FERPA
Parent access to student information
Parents may feel that because they pay tuition or claim the student as a dependent for tax purposes, they are entitled to such information.
The Bursar’s Office strives to assist our students and parents in understanding their financial obligations to UMass Dartmouth while adhering to the FERPA guidelines.
We recommend that all students utilize the parent/student designee functionality available in COIN, UMassD's student information system. Access to COIN is available to parents and other individuals designated by the student. Students are able to grant COIN access for specified functions to parents, guardians, employers, spouses, or other appropriate individuals.
Parents and other designees can then view information and pay bills with their own access. Parent/designee access is designed to preserve the integrity of the student's UMassD Logon while allowing involved parties to securely view information that a student wishes to share, including paying a bill and accessing 1098T information for tax purposes.Your student maintains control of the Parent/Student Designee account; i.e., username, password and accessible screens.
More information: COIN access for parents and other designees
FERPA Waiver
The FERPA act makes provision for inspection, review, and amendment of educational records by the students and requires, in most instances, prior consent from the student for disclosure of such records to third parties. The consent must be in writing, signed and dated by the student and must specify records to be released, reason for release, and the names of the parties to whom such records shall be released.