Final answer:
FERPA regulations mandate that educational agencies offer parents right of access to their children's educational records and the ability to request amendments to those records. The rights under FERPA transfer to the student themselves once they reach the age of 18 or attend a post-high school institution.
Step-by-step explanation:
FERPA regulations require that local education agencies provide parents access to their children's educational records and the opportunity to seek to have the records amended.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that affords parents specific rights regarding their children's education records, such as inspecting and reviewing the records. This applies until the age of 18, or until the student attends a school beyond the high school level; at that point, these rights transfer to the student. FERPA also allows parents to request the amendment of records they believe are inaccurate or misleading, and to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records. Local educational agencies must comply with these regulations by establishing policies and procedures for handling such records and making them available to parents. When a school fails to comply with FERPA, parents have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.
Schools are required to inform parents of their FERPA rights annually, providing sufficient notice of the procedures to follow for accessing records and requesting amendments. Additionally, schools must have written permission from the eligible student or parent to release any information from a student's education record.