What requirement must parents meet to gain access to their child's college records?

To gain access to their child's college records, parents must demonstrate that they have claimed the student as a dependent on their last federal income tax statement. This requirement is rooted in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which grants certain rights concerning student education records primarily to the students themselves once they reach the age of 18 or attend a postsecondary institution. However, for parents to access these records, they need to establish a legal basis for doing so, and one of the primary ways to demonstrate this is through dependency status for tax purposes.

In the context of FERPA, being able to claim a student as a dependent indicates that the parents are financially responsible for the student, which supports their claim to access educational records. This is considered a foundational element in determining who has the right to information that FERPA seeks to protect from unauthorized disclosure. Thus, parents who meet this requirement can obtain information and records that would otherwise be protected from disclosure without the student's consent.