American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) FERPA guide
The Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA), also known as the Buckley Amendment, can be defined as:
"A federal law designed to protect the privacy of education records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their education records, and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate and misleading data through informal and formal hearings."
The Act applies to students enrolled in higher education institutions as well as K-12 students. Under FERPA, these two groups are treated the same with one fundamental difference: WHO the rights are given to under the Act. If a student is a minor (e.g., under the age of eighteen) or a dependent, the parents or legal guardians are afforded the rights. On the other hand, the rights primarily reside with the student, regardless of age, once he or she is admitted or enrolls at an institution of higher education. Only when the student has signed a written release giving their parent(s) access to their record, or when an institution accepts proof from the parent that the student is a dependent, is an institution allowed to release information from the student's education record to parents.
As AACRAO and its constituency does not deal with the portion of the law affecting K-12 students, we will be focusing on how FERPA affects higher ed students and the institutions which they attend. In light of this, the essence of the Act is:
1. College students must be permitted to inspect their own education records
2. Institutions may not disclose information about students nor permit inspection of their records without written permission, unless such action is covered by certain exceptions permitted in the Act
Who do these regulations apply to?
FERPA applies to each educational agency or educational institution which receives funds, including Title IV Federal Aid, under any program administered by the Secretary of Education.
Penalties for FERPA Violations
Institutions which violate the Act can be faced with a withdrawal of Federal funding. This, however, has not occurred since the inception of the Act. Typically, complaints are fielded then corrections are made.
Practically speaking, an institution is unlikely to lose funding unless multiple violations occur without any corrective action taken.