Disclosures 7: Parents who initiate request for disclosure, part 1

Abstract

A few years back, a registrar posed the following situation on scr‐l: The technology department at his institution told the registrar they had received an “interesting call” from a mother requesting the phone records for her child. She wanted to know (1) who her student was calling and (2) who was calling her student. She also wanted to know the dates and times connected to each call. According to the mother, the student had a large phone bill, and she wanted to know why. The registrar said the college sends the phone bills to students (which prompted the mother's call when her student asked her to pay the bill). The registrar also wasn’t sure if “phone records” were education records that fell under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.