Family Education Rights and Privacy Act

What is FERPA?

FERPA stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (sometimes called the Buckley Amendment). Passed by Congress in 1974, the act grants four specific rights to the adult student:

• The right to see the information that the institution is keeping on the student
• The right to seek amendment to those records and, in certain cases, append a statement to the record
• The right to consent to disclosure of his/her records
• The right to file a complaint with the FERPA office in Washington