The U.S. Department of Education's Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is a federal law that gives parents the right to have access to their children's education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records. When a student turns 18 years old, or enters a postsecondary institution at any age, the rights under FERPA transfer from the parents to the student.

Contact the school district where you attended high school or your state department of education. If you attended a non-public school, you will want to contact the school directly. Please note that the U.S. Department of Education does not maintain transcript records of any school.

Congress has passed two major pieces of legislation that generally require local educational agencies (LEAs) receiving assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to give military recruiters the same access to secondary school students as they provide to postsecondary institutions or to prospective employers. LEAs are also generally required to provide students' names, addresses, and telephone listings to military recruiters, when requested.

The information is used specifically for armed services recruiting purposes and to inform young people of scholarship opportunities. Schools are required to provide notice to parents, allowing them an opportunity to opt out of providing the information to recruiters. For more information view FAQs and Guidance available from the Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO).

The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) is a federal law that affords certain rights to parents of minor students with regard to surveys that ask questions of a personal nature. Briefly, the law requires that schools obtain written consent from parents before minor students are required to participate in any U.S. Department of Education funded survey, analysis, or evaluation that reveals information concerning the following areas:

1. Political affiliations;

2. Mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to the student and his/her family;

3. Sex behavior and attitudes;

4. Illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior;

5. Critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close family relationships;

6. Legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers;

7. Religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs of the student or student's parent*; or

8. Income (other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under such program.)

When schools close, the generally accepted practice is for the school to make arrangements with the state-licensing agency to store their records. If you are trying to find your academic records from a closed school, you should contact the state licensing agency in the state in which the school was located to ask whether the state made arrangements to store the records. Please note that there are different agencies for secondary and higher education. Information about financial aid and closed schools is also available.