Final answer:
The law referred to is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law giving students and parents rights over educational records and ensuring privacy in educational settings.
Step-by-step explanation:
The law that protects the privacy of students and their parents, and grants them certain rights regarding the student's own records, is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Enacted in 1974, FERPA is a federal law that provides students with the right to inspect and review their educational records, the right to seek to amend those records, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the records. Unlike HIPAA, which deals with health information privacy, or GLBA which is concerned with financial privacy, or FISMA, which focuses on information security of federal data, FERPA specifically addresses the educational context, ensuring that students and their families maintain privacy over their educational records.
Additionally, educational institutions that fail to comply with FERPA may be subjected to financial consequences by the Department of Education if they have a policy or practice of denying parents and eligible students their rights under FERPA. Thus, FERPA is crucial for protecting privacy in educational settings and maintaining trust between educational institutions, students, and parents.