Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student educational records. Parents have certain rights with respect to their children's education records, but those rights terminate when the student begins college or reaches age 18, whichever comes first. Thus, all UC Merced students have FERPA protection. Students can grant authorization to parents and others to access protected information. That process is discussed below. Without this authorization, Student Business Services (SBS) cannot provide student account information (account balance, refund status, etc.) to anyone other than the student.
Granting a Parent(s) or Others with Payer Access
Parents and other persons can be granted online access to a student account to view electronic billing statements, receive account alerts, make online payments, and set up a payment plan. To grant this limited account access, the student must set up a Payer access (a username and password) on the student’s MyBill, accessed by students through the UC Merced Connect student portal. Note: a student can set up multiple Payers.
To set up a Payer, the student will need to do the following:
- From the MyBill home page, click the My Account tab
- Select “Send a payer invitation” under the Payers section
- Enter the payer’s first and last name and email address
- Click on the Send invitation button
This following video illustrates the setup process:
Video - Setting up Payer access
After the student sets up the payer, an email will be sent to the payer. Once the payer completes their portion of the setup process, their username and password will be needed to access the MyBill website or discuss the student’s account with SBS. If the payer forgets his/her username or password, the payer can retrieve the username or password on the Parent Sign-in page. SBS cannot reset usernames and/or passwords for payers.
Viewing Your Student's Account
The following link takes you to the Parent Sign-in page, where you will enter your username and password. As an authorized payer, you are only able to access certain areas of MyBill.
MyBill reflects current charges, payments, and waivers. Please note that charges may appear on your student’s account well into the semester if your student adds or drops courses during the Add/Drop period or leaves UC Merced mid-term. Your student is responsible for checking their student account regularly for new charges.
Billing statements are generally available for viewing on the first business day of each month. The billing statement is a static picture of your student’s account when the billing statement is generated. Once published, billing statements are not updated with additional charges or payments.
The following link provides helpful information on how to navigate MyBill: Navigating MyBill
Contacting SBS
with Payer access can contact SBS via telephone or email. If contacting SBS via telephone, staff is required to verify the name of the Payer and their email before being able to assist them. If contacting SBS via email, the Payer must send their email from their email address that is reflected on MyBill.
If a student does not wish to set up a Payer, we can allow a one-time authorization if the student and parent/person call in together and the student verbally gives authorization to discuss their student account with that parent/person.
Removing Payer Access and/or Change Notification Rights
Students can remove Payer access and/or change notification rights themselves if they don’t have any activity history on their MyBill.
To remove a Payer, the student will need to do the following:
- From the MyBill home page, click the My Account tab
- Click on the payer’s name under the Payers section
- Click on the Remove payer button
- Click on the Save button
To change or allow access to statements, the student will need to do the following:
- From the MyBill home page, click the My Account tab
- Click on the payer’s name under the Payers section
- Click on the box next to Allow access to statements
- Click on the Save button
If the student is still an active enrolled student, they cannot remove Payer access themselves. The student will need to email a request to SBS at sbs@ucmerced.edu so that we can submit a ticket to the billing payment system requesting the removal.
