Objective
- To provide guidance on a parent's access to your student's account (financial and academic records)
- To provide a legal rationale for the limited and specific account information we can provide to parents over the phone
User
Environment
- Identity and Access Management
- Miami Account
- Student Account
- Parent/Family Account
- 284774: Student Information for Families
- One Stop
Rationale
- FERPA, the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act, protects the privacy of student education records, both financial and academic
- In most instances, the information you want regarding your student's account — course schedule, financial aid, housing/meal plans, billing, grades, etc. — can only be obtained using a Parent/Family account in Student Information for Families. You must have a Parent/Family account and your student's permission to access any student record
Guidelines
Common Issues and Resolutions
Issue: You cannot access your student's Miami account
Cause: You do not have the correct login credentials
Resolution: FERPA regulations prohibits Miami University from giving out passwords or assisting a non-user in resetting an account password. Ask your student to give you authorization to see certain records — all they have to do is follow these KB instructions to share their student account with you
Issue: You cannot access your student's loan/debt summary page
Cause: Your parent account does not give you access to your student's loan/debt summary page
Resolution: Ask your student to log in to the loan/debt summary page and discuss questions you may have about their account
Issue: You cannot accept your student's financial aid award
Cause: Your parent account does not give you access to accept awards or make changes to your student's records
Resolution: Ask your student to log in and accept the financial aid award on their account
Issue: You can view information about your student within your parent account, but you cannot access and see their grades
Cause: Your student has not authorized you to access their grades
Resolution: Ask your student to give you authorization to see their grades — all they have to do is follow these KB instructions to share their student account with you
Information we can share
- Certain information, including our formulas for creating Miami credentials, is considered to be public. We can freely provide the following to parents:
- The formula for creating a typical UniqueID
- Generally, a UniqueID will consist of the first six characters of a student's last name, their first initial, and their middle initial
- The reason why a UniqueID might have a number at the end of it
- The formula for creating a default MUnet password
- A default password will consist of a student's two-digit month of birth, two-digit day of birth, and the last four digits of their Social Security number (SSN) in the format, MMDDSSSS
- If no SSN is provided, a default password will consist of a student's two-digit month of birth, two-digit day of birth, and the last four digits of their Banner+ ID number in the format, MMDDBBBB
- All methods available for resetting a password
- Incoming first year student password reset tool, recovery options, in-person reset with photo ID, password reset form with two photo IDs
- Anything publicly viewable in the Miami directory without logging in
- For more information on Miami account credentials, see Miami Account / Guide: Find your UniqueID and MUnet password and Banner / Guide: Find your Banner+ number
Information we cannot share
- Certain information is considered to be private. Under no circumstances can we provide the following to parents:
- The status of your student's MUnet password at the default value
- The formula used to create your student's default MUnet password
- Confirmation of your student's birthday, Banner ID, or SSN
- Confirmation of your student's UniqueID, if it is not publicly viewable in the directory