What is the focus of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)?

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is fundamentally focused on ensuring student privacy in educational records. This federal law gives parents and eligible students certain rights regarding their education records, including the right to access their records, request corrections, and control the disclosure of personally identifiable information. Through these protections, FERPA promotes a student's right to confidentiality and safeguards sensitive information from unauthorized access.

The other options, while they address educational contexts, do not align with the primary intent of FERPA. For instance, protecting student test scores may fall under broader privacy concerns, but it does not encapsulate the full scope of rights that FERPA addresses regarding all educational records. Similarly, parental oversight of school budgets and teacher certification processes do not relate to the protection of student educational records or their privacy, which is at the heart of FERPA's purpose.