We are a two income family and as a working mother who primarily is working to afford the tuition, I strongly believe parents should have access to all information regarding their child. Not only should parents be aware of their academic situation, but also if there were any problems that might incur. If students feel they should have privacy then I believe they should be paying for their own education, room and board, phone, food, clothing etc... That is when you should be getting privacy when you have reached that level of independency. That is when you are considered to be an adult.

As a parent who had to fight for HIPPA information to help my offspring who developed a serious mental illness, I can see the bad side of this mandate. Sometimes a person who is going downhill can be helped before a disaster happens. A sharp change in behavior, including academic behavior, can indicate not just that one is learning to take control of one's own affairs; it can mean in some cases, that a student is dropping out for reasons that have nothing to do with self-control and self-discipline.

The vast majority of universities do not directly share such information with students. If you are financially supporting you child at BU, you can certainly have your child give you a copy of their academic information. My sister went to UNC and my parent's would not pay her tuition unless she gave them a copy of her transcript every semester.

I agree whole-heartedly with the comments above, and couldn't express my feelings any more eloquently than the person who posted the previous comments did. I can't help but remember the Virginia Tech shooter, who apparently was having obvious psychological problems and desperately needed help, but because of privacy policies his parents could not be informed. I'm pretty sure the families of those killed by his angry rampage would wish his parents could have been notified that there were concerns about his mental state. I would CERTAINLY want to know if my adult child was having problems, be it mental, physical, social, behavioral, or academic.

Parents who fund their child's education should get some level of access to information about their student's performance in school. If the child doesn't want their parent to know their grades or see what classes they're taking, the students should feel free to fund their education themselves. While undergrad is, for most young adults, an important step towards independence from their parents and childhood, they are not entirely independent if they are relying on their parents for monetary support.

Let me put it this way: if I owned a business, I couldn't expect to hide my business's performance, sales figures or finances from an investor. If I want to keep my finances and business performance information to myself, then I'll have to find a way to use my own money. Students shouldn't expect that dynamic to be any different.