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ERIC Number: EJ1317163
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 13
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1087-0059
EISSN: N/A
Parents as Partners: Engaging Parents to Support Student Success
Truschel, Jack; Hoffman, Jan
Learning Assistance Review, v26 n1 p1-13 Spr 2021
In 2016, one university began discussions of how to use the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to their advantage to address an adversarial position parents were taking with university personnel. These parents were termed "helicopter parents"--parents who take an "overprotective or excessive interest in the life of their child or children" (Swalboski, 2018). Given the reported influx of demanding parents/guardians seeking information about students, the Division of Enrollment Management at the university, began planning strategies to limit parent/guardian inquiry of student records through clever interpretation of FERPA. According to FERPA, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. Therefore, the goal of the Division of Enrollment Management was to limit conversations with parents as much as possible. At the same time university department housing academic success services for students noted that the support parents offer may complement university retention efforts if channeled appropriately. This department rallied against the planning strategies of the Division of Enrollment Management and developed a "Parents as Partners" orientation program presented to parents at summer orientation. The presentation familiarized parents with campus support systems and encouraged an alliance between the service providers on campus and parents in support of student success. This article describes the orientation program's presentation and shares results from evaluation forms given to the participanting parents.
National College Learning Center Association. Web site: http://www.nclca.org/tlar
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act 1974
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A