For ‘mama bear’ parents, access to their college kids’ medical and student records can be a waiver away

When Jennifer Hughes son was in a mountain biking accident last year she was prepared to go into full mama bear mode overseeing his health care and insurance details But the Chicago-area mom ran into repeated roadblocks federal privacy laws that turned an already stressful time into a nightmare Her son Vance Hughes had in recent weeks turned meaning she no longer had unfettered access to his medicinal records or his soundness insurance and financial information It really got me thinking Gosh what are we going to do if something happens when he s at college and he requirements our sponsorship Will we be able to give it to him legally ' Jennifer Hughes disclosed I know it sounds crazy but that was a concern Hughes fears were quelled by a company with a name that resonated Mama Bear Legal Forms For under college-bound kids can sign privacy waivers granting their parents access to their health records and educational information including grades Technological advances have increasingly given parents the ability to track their children s locations and system usage Mama Bear taps into a territory of parents accustomed to this vigilance who realize their access changes when their kids turn and are subject to medical- and student-privacy laws Mama Bear s website provides a bundle of medical and financial power-of-attorney forms a release waiving the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or FERPA which prevents parents from accessing their child s educational records once they turn and a release waiving the candidate s federal Fitness Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA medical-privacy rights Representatives of the Nebraska-based company did not respond to interview requests Mama Bear which is not a law firm and doesn t offer legal advice markets itself as a explanation for anxious parents to feel confident knowing you can backing your college-bound child It s a small price to pay for peace of mind noted Ruth Epps a Littleton mom whose son at the University of Colorado Boulder signed Mama Bear legal forms Chatter about Mama Bear s services pops up every sparse weeks in CU-related Facebook groups where parents crowdsource questions about their children s dorm-room assignments ask where they can order soup for a sick kid and find out which classes are best Parents on Facebook wrote that their social media feeds were filled with Mama Bear ads and posts wanting to know more from families who have used the services Others replied that the company s offerings felt like the answer to a predicament they didn t know they had yet It was a difficulty Hughes knew intimately The professional blogger at mommyevolution com commented her son s mountain biking accident opened her eyes to an issue that hadn t been on her radar Vance Hughes is headed to CU Boulder this fall to review psychology and ski in his downtime When his mom approached him about signing the Mama Bear documents to give her access to his wellness financial and educational records he commented it was a no-brainer He knew the trouble his mom had been through dealing with his insurance after his biking accident and craved to prevent that headache while allowing his parents more control over his healthcare decisions should an exigency happen again The biggest thing for me is my mom can still hold my hand and help me through my formative years of becoming an adult as long as I need help in the future Vance Hughes disclosed I don t see the harm in it Vance Hughes commented he has a great relationship with his mom He couldn t imagine her using her new legal access to pry into his life willy-nilly She ll allegedly only look if I m really really struggling and that will allow her to be like What can I do to help you ' he announced Jennifer Hughes agreed Her son knows she wouldn t misuse her new power she noted and she knows he would willingly discuss his grades without her having to snoop You think about your kid being an adult but he s still your kid and they may need your assistance she stated It s not about making sure you keep a thumb on them It s that in matter of an emergency you can advocacy them in the best way they need He s going to college to be his own person and this is a great place for him to start learning how to adult A one-size-fits-all approach Jennifer Hendricks a CU Boulder law professor and co-director of the Juvenile and Family Law Operation wasn t as sold on Mama Bear Legal Forms It wasn t so much the medicinal directive or strength care power of attorney that concerned her although she noted it was more likely a parent would need those forms for themselves than for their children What worried Hendricks was what she described as fear-based marketing and a prospective overreach in signing away students FERPA and HIPAA rights These forms go beyond allowing parents to have a say if a clinical exigency strikes she announced They could inform mom and dad that their child is talking to a therapist taking birth control or going to the healthcare center for a nasty hangover Hendricks declared What I m seeing is really infantilizing the adult children by having the mom prepare everything and then just say sign this ' Hendricks reported Colorado-based family law attorney Rich Harris disclosed he s had conversations with his own family about whether they should consider particular of these legal forms for their college-aged children He advised talking to legal experts rather than outsourcing to a one-size-fits-all internet option There s a trend in these do-it-yourself legal form companies Harris reported I ve been cautioning people for years to be very very careful about them because they purport to give you a one-size-fits-all approach for a super low fee and offer very little legal customization Plus Hendricks disclosed there are existing free health and university release forms allowing students to decide which parts of their lives their parents can access For example university FERPA waivers allow parents and kids to sign off on parents having access to their students financial information useful for parents who are paying their kids tuition or handling financial aid forms Parents have been trained to have a real sort of dystopian level of surveillance over their children and this is a company trying to make money off of profiting off that anxiety and the need to monitor and surveil rather than to prepare their child to be an adult Hendricks disclosed The company is playing on this fear that something terrible could happen and you won t be able to help your kid A gradual roll into adulthood Epps the Littleton mom felt her fear realized after her son got sick while at CU Boulder He didn t know how to advocate for himself when he went to the medical professional she explained and he didn t say much when she required how his appointment went She tried to call the university to learn more but was stated she couldn t access his therapeutic information Epps son ended up growing pneumonia and needed to come home to get better missing about a month of school she declared Now that he has Mama Bear in place I can talk to anyone she announced Which would hopefully prevent something like that from happening in the future I would have known had they noted his oxygen levels are low that things were bad Related Articles College graduates face toughest job field in more than a decade as hiring slows Colorado universities brace for plunge in international students due to fears sparked by Trump policies University of Denver faculty votes no confidence in chancellor Will Colorado schools start using AI surveillance cameras with facial recognition A few already are ChatGPT is transforming Colorado learning for better and worse Experts say maybe that s a good thing Yet Epps would not define herself as a mama bear Instead she explained she hails from the suck it up buttercup line of parenting However when she saw Mama Bear all over her social media feeds she commented it felt like the answer to anxieties that ramped up after her son s sickness I cannot recommend enough that people do it because you will have no authority and it happens the day they turn Epps reported There s no grace period There s no Oh let s help you get used to this It s and you re cut off Epps mentioned she doesn t track her son s grades but that it s a nice feature to have just in occurrence Plus she mentioned the whole thing is a good deal because it doesn t expire until her son revokes it meaning she doesn t have to pay particular kind of annual fee She stated she didn t have much of a conversation with her son about the paperwork I think I just explained sign this ' she declared I just don t think they understand to go from having someone who makes all of your healthcare appointments for you and manages your prescription drugs to being entirely alone they don t understand that it s so sudden We re covering his tuition and living expenses so there s a gradual roll into adulthood It s not like that for this They re so strict about privacy laws Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter