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Letter 34: Request to Amend Education Records

When to Use It

Send this letter after you have read your child’s file and found a statement that is wrong or misleading. Both the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) give you the right to ask the district to amend a record that is inaccurate, misleading, or in violation of your child’s privacy rights (34 C.F.R. §§ 99.20, 300.618). The district must decide within a reasonable time. If it refuses, it must tell you and inform you of your right to a hearing (34 C.F.R. §§ 99.20-99.21, 300.618-300.619). If the hearing goes against you, you still have the right to place a statement of disagreement in the file - and that statement must stay with the contested record and be disclosed whenever the contested part of the record is disclosed (34 C.F.R. §§ 99.21, 300.620).

Know the limit before you send. This process corrects facts. It is not the tool for challenging a grade, an evaluator’s professional opinion, or an IEP team’s decision. Use it for the sentence that reports a suspension that never happened, names the wrong diagnosis, or describes an incident the attendance record contradicts.

Send it to: the district’s records custodian, with a copy to the director of special education.