"PARENTS have the right to access any official record directly relating to the children who are under their parental responsibility." – Section 8 (2), Batas Pambansa Bilang 232, or the Education Act of 1982
For minor students, parents have the right to access their school records, including their grades, without the need for consent. This is so because parents exercise parental authority over their minor and unemancipated children. Parental authority, according to the Supreme Court in the case of Sagala-Eslao v. Court of Appeals, is defined as the mass of rights and obligations that the law grants to parents for the purpose of the children's physical preservation and development, as well as the cultivation of their intellect and the education of their heart and senses. Parental authority is consistent with the constitutional child-rearing right of parents which necessarily includes looking after their children's proper education. The Supreme Court explained in the case of SPARK v. Quezon City that by history and tradition, the parental role implies a substantial measure of authority over one's children and that constitutional interpretation has consistently recognized that the parents' claim to authority to direct the rearing of their children is basic in the structure of our society. And thus, as in our Philippine Constitution, the right and duty of parents to rear their children is not only described as "natural" but also as "primary."
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