The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) as amended is a federal law intended to protect the privacy of student educational records accumulated from early childhood through college.  FERPA provided parents with certain rights with respect to their children's education records.  However, once a student reaches the age of 18 or enters college, the rights previously held by the parents transfer exclusively to the student.

 

Ordinarily, parents of Western Texas College students obtain information about their children's records directly from their children.  Western Texas College may disclose information to parents if a "Parent's Certification Of Dependency" form has been filed with the Admissions and Records Office.  This form can be found at:  http://wtc.edu/applications.forms/academic&vocational/ParentCertDependency.pdf.

 

The payment of a student's tuition by the parent does not, by itself, give the parent the right of access to a student's record.  Questions concerning these procedures may be directed to the Registrar's Office at (325)574-7914.