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:

1. the right to see the information that the institution is keeping on the student;
2. the right to seek amendment to those records and in certain cases append a statement to the record;
3. the right to consent to disclosure of his/her records;
4. the right to file a complaint with the FERPA Office in Washington.