Solved. non- intuitive but it works. I edited the parent role to ALLOW for view courses. Then I assigned all parents to this role systemwide. now they can see all courses but not enroll into them. Since I wanted them in my one course to train them, in that course I assigned them as students in that course. Then, because of our interpretation of ferpa, to prevent them from seeing participants (which they can because this course student role seems to conflict with the systemwide role of parent) I used a course override roles and prevented them seeing participants at course level and in elluminate which we use. This works for me. only drawback is mymoodle page shows some courses they never viewed or enrolled in but not others. not sure why but maybe I need to clean my tables.
Enrolment
Create Role to view but not enroll in a course
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