Obtaining School and Medical Records

What is the name of your state? NC

I have looked around and I am having a really hard time finding what I need.

One parent -- guess they would be considered the NCP -- is looking for state and federal laws regarding obtaining medical and school records to show the doctors and school. Need some leverage in case they don't want to give the information out. The thing is, the school is a Christian school, so I don't know if that complicates things because of the seperation of church and state deal.

Does anyone know the laws regarding this and where I can find them?

Oh yeah, in case anyone is wondering, yes the parents were married but whoever typed up the decree wasn't an attorney and didn't include visitation at all. Custody was put under Findings of Fact but not included under the court ordered part so there was no court order for custody. This was an uncontested divorce and the parents and the person who did the decree didn't have a clue about family law and didn't catch this. They were just eager to sign the decree and be divorced.

Thanks in advance for your time.

I'm not sure if this is what your looking for but Federal law allows a Known Biological Parent to obtain Records ( unless otherwise court ordered).

This Parent needs to send a written request , including the statement "there is NO known Court order preventing them from obtaining the records ", and proof of Parentage. They must honor that request w/ in 45 days.

This law is the ( FERPA) Family Education & Privacy Act .

United States department Of Education , Office of Management,600 Independence Ave.,S.W. - Washington D.C. 20202 To obtain a copy.

Rights of NCPs

If your within distances to go to the school they may required you to set up a time the review the records there,otherwise you should be entitled to copies of normal school records.

34 CFR 99.3 / & 99.4

It's ironic I found another man's name on registration form, as " Future Father to be" of course I had this corrected .

I got this Info from Missing & Exploited Children Clearing House booklet i sent for. It has a wealth of Information. Look up & call your States clearinghouse for a copy/ Free. or 1-800-FIND-KID.

i live in tn, my original decree states that i am supposed to inform my ex of any medical situations and furnish him with school/med records. but i feel he can obtain that info himself. i work in a dr office and i know that by law, a mother or father can obtain child's med rec., for a fee or course. if you have any attorney, they can get the records for you, after you sign proper hipaa compliant forms. it is a parent's right to obtain these records, unless there was a stipulation.

would the form letters at deltabravo be helpful Grace?

Thanks you guys for all your help.

The thing I'm wondering about with FERPA is, from the way I was reading it, it seems that it is a mandate. They will cut off federal funding to schools who don't comply with handing over the information.

The thing is, this can be used for previous years in school because they were in public schools, which recieve federal funding but they started a private school this past fall. From what I have found, FERPA wouldn't apply to private schools that don't get Federal funding. Is this true? If so, that's where the problem lies.

Thanks haiku. Yeah, I looked over there and downloaded a couple of letters. I'm still looking around trying to do more research. I'm hoping the letters will help.

I also found this last night so I hope it will help. I'm assuming a private school would have to follow this as well. It's NC law.

§ 50-13.2. Who entitled to custody; terms of custody;
visitation rights of grandparents; taking child out of
State.
“Absent an order
of the court to the contrary, each parent shall have equal
access to the records of the minor child involving the health,
education, and welfare of the child.”

Still looking for any more possible statutes. I also need to make sure FERPA applies to private schools as well but I'm thinking it doesn't.

How about medical records? I can't seem to find federal laws about that yet. I'm assuming the doctors would have to go by the above NC statute. I just hope if there is more that I can find it.

Grace you might try calling the Family Policy Compliance Office at the address I posted.

This Is what the FERPA letter states that was sent to me.

The term "educational records" is defined as those records records which contain information directly relating to the student and which are maintained by an educational agency or institution or by a party acting for an agency or institution.

If you can figure out if that is private or not !!

Thanks.

This is what caught my eye. It's from ed.gov.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.

Says schools that recieve funds under and applicaple program of the US Dept of Education. I don't think that would apply to this school because I don't think they get that.

But I may try to call tomorrow and see if anyone can tell me anything else I can use.

If they are in NC, they have to follow NC Laws Grace that is bottom line.. Grab the letters off SPRAC & send them out.

My mother is the Principal of a Catholic School in MD, pre-K-8. They do get federal funding, they HAVE TO HAVE it to survive. This isn't something that they mess around with. I’d say chances are pretty good that the private school is also taking Federal Funding. They get it for compliance. Things like attendance, testing, taking in low income, etc.

They might not be aware of the issues involved however, so this might be your chance to inform them. Mom JUST this week got her first letter. She was going to be defiant, until I quoted her the law. She didn't want the school involved in the custody battle. Apparently this isn't something that there is a fact sheet sent out on....YET! *S*

Best of luck!

KAT

Thanks! That helps a lot.

I'll post back later and let you all know how it went.

Just repeating what the others have said, but 2 yrs ago when my steps were moved out of state, my Husband did the Sparta letters and sent one to the school board head. Needless to say within 3 day DH got the answers he was looking for!

Good luck to you girlfriend!

LOL That's encouraging to hear. Thank ya!

Well that went well. Not!

Took the letters off SPARC, copied the statutes, showed the Principal. He refused to give out the information in spite of all that. He even threatened to kick the kids out of school if it came down to a legal issue.

Sure let's make the kids suffer and kick them out.

He asked if he wanted him to call the CP to try and work something out or see if they wanted to talk and he said sure. Well, they wanted to come down there. NCP said fine. Well, there was a big showdown and argument and nothing has been solved.

So much for that.

Well If there is a LAW and they don't fallow it, that can have consiquences. Did they give a reson why it wasn't applicable ?

He just tried to BS his way out of it and was being difficult. He said "Well with the way things are now and how things change we can't just give that out. I've been advised by legal counsel not to do that." Then he said something like he would terminate the kids going to the school before he got involved in a legal dispute or something like that. What he really meant was -- if you pursue this and take it to court or to a lawyer, I'm gonna kick them out. So, if this is pursued through an attorney or anything, he's gonna kick them out. He will only do it if the other parent consents.

So, it's either pursue this and get them kicked out (not good) or drop it I guess.

I wouldn't be surprised if the CP put down not to give out any information to the NCP unless they are contacted.

FERPA doesn't apply to them because he "claims" they don't get federal funding. There is also that state statute but he wouldn't even look at it.

Yeah , well they could always go back to court i guess and get it ordered the Parent has the right to independent records and use that as proof .