Buckley Amendment - American Education

A federal law giving adult students and parents of minors access to, and certain rights to, amend all files related to their school, college and university records. Formally known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, the law was designed to prevent inclusion of inaccurate or prejudicial entries in confidential school records that might damage a student’s chances of obtaining a job or gaining admission to a college or graduate school. The law only applies to items inserted since January 1, 1975.
The law not only allows full access to such files, it gives parents and students the right to delete irrelevant, out-of-date materials, such as a ninth-grade behavioral problem for a 17- year-old college applicant whose subsequent behavior proved impeccable. In addition, adult students and parents of minors may insist on the inclusion of any extenuating circumstances or a different interpretation of some element of a student’s record that might otherwise prove prejudicial.