Attendance record

[chattykathy]

My 17 year old niece has been skipping college but the lecturer wont divulge her attendance record to my brother, her dad, as she says it's against their policy. She's only 17 and is totally dependant on my brother as she doesn't earn so surely he has a right to know if she's going or not??!! I'm fairly sure than when my son was 18 and still at school I would have been informed if he'd skipped a day. Can anyone clear this up?

[bednobs]

i wouldn't have thought there was any need to bring law into it. Attendance at further education is not compulsory, so therefore the college are able to set their own policies and if the students or their guardians dont agree with the policies, they are totally free to leave if they wish

[bednobs]

i wouldn't have thought there was any need to bring law into it. Attendance at further education is not compulsory, so therefore the college are able to set their own policies and if the students or their guardians dont agree with the policies, they are totally free to leave if they wish.
at 16 you can be married and move out of home

[CheekyChops]

I work in a College and we will only divulge info to the person that the student has given as their next of kin / person to contact in an emergency.

Otherwise, anyone could call and say that they are that student's father, uncle, brother etc etc.

[Buenchico]

At 16 years old a young person has the right to walk out of their home and never have any contact with their parents again. If their parents reported them as missing and the police were to find out where the young person was staying, the police would be strictly prohibited from revealing their whereabouts to their parents.

College lecturers have no way of knowing which of their students are still dependent on their parents, or who has decided never to have any contact with their parents again (or, of course, who falls into a 'semi-independent' category in between). It follows that they must adopt a common policy and respect the privacy of all of their students. Failure to do so would, at least, be a serious breach of professional conduct; it might also be a breach of data protection legislation.

Chris

[McMouse]

Is she skipping for a good reason? How do you know about it? If it's a big deal speak to your brother and her.

[chattykathy]

Thanks for your repiles - I can see what you mean. He has found her at home when she should have been at college for not the first time. Most of the time it's because she doesn't want to get up in the morning! or just can't be bothered. He is anxious that she wont pass her exams (NVQ 3) in the summer or will bekicked off the course. He's also angry with her because he has bought a lot of expensive equipment she needs and funded her through the course. He has been to the college to discuss it but they wont divulge how much time she has had off.