The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA or the Buckley Amendment) is a United States federal law codified at , with implementing regulations in title 34, part 99 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The regulations cover violations such as parent volunteers grading another child's work, school employees divulging information to someone other than the child's parents about a child's homelife, grades or behaviors, and school work posted on a bulletin board with a grade.

This privacy policy also governs how state agencies transmit testing data to federal agencies. For example see Education Data Network.

The law allows students who apply to an educational institution, such as graduate school, permission to view recommendations submitted by others as part of the application. However, on standard application forms, students are given the option to waive this right. Many applicants do waive this right.

FERPA specifically excludes the treatment records of students in higher education from its definition of educational records. It also excludes employees of an educational institution if they are not students.

The act is also referred to as the Buckley Amendment, named for one of its proponents, Senator James L. Buckley of New York.

External links

• http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_04/34cfr99_04.html
• http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html
• Everything you've always wanted to know about HIPAA and FERPA (but were afraid to ask).