The primary rights that eligible students have under FERPA include:

 Right to inspect and review education records.

With respect to a student’s right to inspect and review records, it is the institution’s responsibility to:

• comply with the request within 45 days.
• make a copy of records available when failure to do so would effectively deny access (i.e., for students or former students who do not live within commuting distance).
• not destroy records if request for access is pending

 Right to seek to amend education records.
 Right to have some control over the disclosure of information from education records. This includes the right to:

• forbid disclosure of directory information.
• direct an institution to supply third parties with records on their behalf.

Limitations on the right to
inspect and review records

An institution does not have to permit a student to inspect and review education records that:

• contain information on more than one student. The requesting student may inspect, review or be informed of only the specific information about his or her records.
• contain the financial records of his or her parents.
• contain confidential letters and statements of recommendation regarding admission, application for employment, or receipt of an honor or honorary recognition (if the student has waived his or her right to inspect and review those letters and statements).
  
  Note: These items can be temporarily removed from the student’s file to accommodate a review.

Parental Rights to Access Records

When a student reaches the age of 18 or begins attending a postsecondary institution, regardless of age, FERPA rights transfer from the parent to the student. (See 34 C.F.R. secs. 99.3 and 99.5). In other words, at the postsecondary level, parents have no inherent rights to inspect their son's or daughter's education records.

• The institution may grant parents the right to obtain non-directory information — such as grades and GPA — but is certainly not required under FERPA to do so.
• If the institution chooses to allow parents to see such items as grades and GPA, there are two avenues for doing so: signed, written consent from the student involved; or submission by the parents of proof that they declared the student as a dependent on their most recent Federal Income Tax form.
• AACRAO strongly recommends that the institution include a statement, in its Annual Notification of FERPA rights, as to its policy concerning parental access to student education records.
• The institution should comply with judicial orders or lawfully issued subpoenas, provided that the institution makes a reasonable attempt to notify the student in advance of compliance, so that the student may seek protective action (unless the subpoena explicitly orders the institution not to disclose the existence of the subpoena to the person who would normally be notified of its existence).

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Last Updated on Friday, September 1, 2000