Student records (including reports of concern) are protected by a set of federal laws and regulations known as FERPA. As a result, in most cases, parents will not be notified.

In most cases, FERPA prevents parents and family members from receiving access to their student’s records unless the student has signed a release of information. The Office of the Registrar manages educational records and provides additional helpful information about FEPRA.

We encourage you and your student to develop a plan in advance as it relates to your expectations around communication. How often will you talk to each other and in what way, phone, text, email, etc.? What kind of information will be shared? What are those key areas of which each of you would like to stay apprised?

Your student should also consider in advance what resources may be helpful in difficult situations. If your student actively utilized support resources in high school, i.e., counseling, IEP or 504 plans, tutoring, etc. help them to consider whether or not they will continue to need those resources. If so, your student will need to be pro-active in making arrangements as the onus is on the student to seek out the resources needed. Therefore, you will want to encourage your student to make arrangements in advance of their arrival on campus so as to avoid a lapse in the support they need.

We also suggest that you encourage your student to update their local address information as well as emergency contact information in their self-service account. It is important that they update this information at the start of each semester. In the case of an emergency, this is the fastest way for us to know where they live and access emergency contact information.

If you believe your student may be missing, or you have not heard from him/her for a period of time, contact the Connie Frank CARE Center (formerly the Student Assistance Center) at 217-333-0050 during business hours. If it is outside business hours and it is an emergency, or you have other reasons to be immediately concerned, please contact UIPD at 217-333-1216. If there is additional information available that points to a more serious concern, UIPD, the Emergency Dean, and other appropriate staff will coordinate efforts to locate that student. After the student has been located, the Connie Frank CARE Center (formerly the Student Assistance Center) will work with that student to coordinate medical or academic care that may be needed to prevent a similar situation from arising.

If you cannot get in contact with your student, but you have no reason to believe the situation is an emergency, we will attempt to assist you in locating your student. During regular business hours the Dean of Students staff is happy to assist and you may reach us at 217-333-0050. We will put systems in place to contact your student, inform him/her of your concern, and ask that he/she contact you.

Often the psychiatric facility will contact a student's family directly. When we become aware that a student is hospitalized we work with the student to have the student inform parents of the hospitalization. However, we do not compel students to notify their parents of any hospitalization.