Court Cases Involving Schools and Universities under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974.

The present study surveyed the policies of school districts of a midwestern state to determine their stated or implied practices concerning the noncustodial parent. Interview questions asked seventy nine school districts to reveal their policies regarding involving noncustodial parents in the educational program of their children, especially with those children experiencing academic problems. Results suggest that in almost one half of the school districts surveyed, noncustodial parents are excluded from the educational process. A large percentage of school districts did not collect identifying information concerning noncustodial parents and the majority implemented their practices regarding noncustodial parents without written policy guidelines. Suggestions are offered to assist school districts in developing more innovative practices enabling them to lake a leadership role in serving nontraditional families.

The Impact of School Policies on Noncustodial Parents

The Australian Commonwealth Government is about to initiate widespread changes to family law. Central to the reform proposals is the introduction of Family Relationship Centres (FRCs), as alternatives to current adversarial approaches to settling family separation. This discussion paper raises two issues in relation to the forthcoming reforms. Firstly, within community debates, nonresidential (noncustodial) mothers are typically subsumed under nonresidential (noncustodial) parents, often without recognition of their particular needs, as nonresidential mothers. [1] The article draws attention to the social stigma nonresidential mothers suffer and its implications for the reform process. Secondly, we include both nonresidential mothers and nonresidential fathers in a critique of the lack of educational initiatives by educational research and schools to involve nonresidential parents in their children's schooling. We believe that in the spirit of the forthcoming reforms, schools need to reach out to all parents. This means that school personnel (school psychologists, social workers) need to be available to families and consultants during negotiations within the proposed FRCs, to assist both nonresidential mothers and fathers in securing school involvement.

Nonresidential Parents: Nonresidential Mothers, Schools, and the Reform Process

A persistent issue confronting elementary school counselors is clarification of the noncustodial parent's status regarding access to a child's educational records in the absence of a specific court order or other restraint. The issue becomes a real concern with the passage of the 1974 Family Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), commonly known as the Buckley Amendment. This federal legislation, part of the sweeping due process reforms of the 1970s, brought public attention to the problem of maintaining and gaining access to records (Gibson, Mitchell, & Higgins, 1983; Hummel & Humes, 1984). The law and regulations do define important terms such as parent , custody , and court order ("Privacy Rights," 1980), but there is room for interpretation, particularly regarding the ethics of confidentiality (Remley, 1985). During the past decade much has been written about the law and its regulations, with an entire issue of Elementary School Guidance & Counseling (Larrabee & Terres, 1985) devoted to the topic. The law and regulations, however, do not address the issue of whether a school counselor, with good reason, may contact a noncustodial parent to share information without notifying the custodial parent. Obviously, this is a highly charged emotional issue and can engender both rancor and litigation. The answer to the dilemma may be found in case law. These points interpret the law and regulations through judicial decisions. An actual case is presented below, including the question posed, a statement of facts, the issues, and a conclusion.

Charles W. Humes

Papers

Counselor Contact of the Noncustodial Parent: A Point of Law.