Amending an Inaccurate or Misleading Record

Under 34 C.F.R. §§ 99.20–99.22, a student who believes an education record is inaccurate, misleading, or in violation of their privacy rights may ask the institution to amend it. If the institution refuses, it must tell you and inform you of your right to a hearing. If the hearing goes against you, you may place a statement in the record commenting on the contested information and setting out your disagreement — and that statement must be maintained with the record and disclosed whenever the record is disclosed.

That is a real right, and it is used far less than it should be. It also has a limit that catches almost everyone.

The limit

FERPA lets you challenge whether a record accurately reflects what happened. It does not let you use the amendment process to challenge the substantive correctness of the underlying decision.

In practice:

  • “The transcript records a grade of C for a course in which I received a B” — an accuracy question. Amendable.
  • “My professor should have given me a B rather than a C” — a grading dispute. Not a FERPA matter.
  • “The file states I was found responsible for an offense I was never charged with” — accuracy. Amendable.
  • “The panel got the facts wrong and should not have found me responsible” — a challenge to the decision. Pursued through the institution’s appeal process, not through FERPA.

The distinction is frustrating and it is well settled. Which is why the framing of an amendment request matters enormously: the same underlying grievance can be inside or outside FERPA depending on how it is expressed.

What is genuinely amendable

  • Factual errors — wrong dates, wrong course, wrong name, a finding attributed to the wrong student.
  • Records of outcomes that were later reversed but never updated. This is common and very often successful.
  • Charges that were dismissed or withdrawn still recorded as though live.
  • Sanctions recorded incorrectly, or recorded as continuing after they expired.
  • Records that are misleading by omission — a notation that a matter was “resolved” where the resolution was in your favor and the record does not say so.
  • Absences recorded as unexcused where the institution had agreed to excuse them. Note that the Office for Civil Rights names correcting student records regarding unexcused absences as a standard remedy in disability cases — a useful cross-reference where the record error has a disability dimension.

The statement in the record

If the amendment is refused after a hearing, the right to place a statement in the record is not a consolation prize. It travels with the record. Every future disclosure of the contested information must include your statement.

For a student facing a graduate admissions committee or a licensing board that will see a disciplinary notation, a clear, factual, unemotional statement attached to that notation can matter a great deal. It is worth drafting carefully rather than in frustration.

How to run the request

  1. Identify the exact record and the exact error, in writing. Quote the language you say is wrong.
  2. Frame it as accuracy. Every sentence should be about what the record says versus what occurred.
  3. Attach proof — the email agreeing to excuse the absence, the appeal outcome, the dismissal notice.
  4. Ask for the hearing expressly if the request is refused. Institutions sometimes treat a refusal as the end; the regulation does not.
  5. Prepare the statement in parallel, so that if the hearing fails you are not writing it under time pressure.

Common questions

Who decides the hearing?

An official or party who does not have a direct interest in the outcome, under § 99.22. You are entitled to a full and fair opportunity to present evidence and may be assisted by one or more individuals, including an attorney.

How long does it take?

The regulation requires a hearing within a reasonable time and a written decision based solely on the evidence presented.

Can I amend a record after I graduate?

The right attaches to education records, which remain education records after you leave.

Get in touch if a records question has become a real problem — a hold you cannot resolve, a disclosure that should not have happened, or a record that is wrong and staying wrong.

General information about federal education privacy law. It is not legal advice, it does not create an attorney-client relationship, and it cannot account for your institution’s own policies or the law of your state, several of which impose obligations beyond FERPA.