Parental Notification Policy
(updated August 2009)
Disclosure to Parents
of Dependent Students.
Under the Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), colleges and universities are afforded certain
liberties relative to notifying parents or guardians of information concerning
their student. In July 2000, the Department of Higher Education Rules instructed
institutions further by giving them greater latitude to notify parents of rules
violations stating that schools could determine their own process and were
not required to alert students of notification as long as the institution
kept such activity in the students’ educational file to which the student has
access. It was also noted that colleges and universities do not have to
hold hearings before contacting parents.
The goals of Penn State
University’s parental notification policy are to:
- Identify additional
supportive points of intervention for students.
- Become better partners
with parents/guardians in support of their student.
- To identify at risk
behavior thresholds for which notification would be effectively applied.
- To educate students
about the negative impact that dangerous, unhealthy and inappropriate
choices have on their education and on others.
- To utilize the impacts
of family/guardian intervention for deterring further misconduct.
Disclosure
of Discipline Records of Dependent Students.
Disciplinary records are
maintained as part of each student’s educational records. The University
reserves the right to report general discipline information to parents and
guardians of dependent students. A “dependent student” as defined by Section 152
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is a person who has attended an educational
institution full-time for any five (5) calendar months of a tax year and who was
provided more than one-half of his or her support as claimed by his or her
parent(s) on their income tax statement.
A student is not a
dependent student if he or she:
- is or will be 24 years
old during the academic year.
- is enrolled in a
graduate or professional program.
- is married.
- has a child or other
dependent who receives more than half of his or her support from the
student.
- is an orphan or ward of
the court.
- is a veteran of the U.S.
Armed Forces.
- is an international
student.
For purposes of this policy,
the assumption, unless individually certified to the contrary, is that
University students are not dependent students. Absent unusual circumstances,
the University does not disclose disciplinary records to parents and
guardians of students who are not dependent students.
Disclosure
of Discipline Records Concerning Violations of Local, State or Federal Law
Governing the Use or Possession of Alcohol or Controlled Substances
Federal legislation
authorizes the University to disclose disciplinary records to parents and
guardians of students who are under the age of 21, regardless of dependency,
when the records concern violations of local, state or federal law governing the
use or possession of alcohol or controlled substances. However, absent
unusual circumstances, the University does not disclose disciplinary records to
parents and guardians of students who are not dependent students as defined by
the Internal Revenue Code.
Parental
Notification of General Discipline Information
Accordingly, where federal
legislation authorizes the University to disclose disciplinary records to
parents and guardians, the University reserves the right to do so under any of
the following circumstances:
- The parent or guardian
inquires about a specific Code of Conduct violation for which the student
was found responsible of committing;
- The student exhibits a
pattern of established misconduct and has exhausted or failed to complete
required conditions of assigned discipline sanctions or other performance
requirements;
- The Code of Conduct
violation constitutes a situation where the student’s status at the
University may be in jeopardy (i.e., housing or academic standing);
- The student has been
involved or has involved others in a potentially life-threatening situation
and there is reason to believe that notifying parents and guardians may
reduce the imminent risk.
