The following question was submitted to John Roska, an attorney/writer whose weekly newspaper column, "The Law Q&A," ran in the  Champaign News Gazette. 

Question

I’m a high school student. Can I see my school record without my parents’ consent?

Answer

Schools must let students see their permanent record upon request. Parental consent isn’t required.

Your permanent record contains the records a school is required to keep. Any other records a school keeps is part of your temporary record. Schools can let you see your temporary record, but don’t have to.

Federal and state law guarantees access to student records and privacy. The federal law is the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act (FERPA). FERPA says that public schools and private schools can’t get federal money unless school records are open to students and parents, and closed to most others.

FERPA became law in 1974. Afterward, Illinois enacted the School Student Records Act. This law and Board of Education regulations define the basic rights students and parents have to student records. Open access to students and parents is the basic idea.

In Illinois, parents can see everything if they are allowed by law to do so. The exception would be if there is a court order that prevents a parent from seeing the school records.

Once you turn 18, graduate, get married, or enter the military, you’re entitled to see your school records. At that time, your parents aren’t entitled to see anything. Under FERPA, you become an "eligible student" when you turn 18 or attends a post-secondary institution.

The state law defines a school record as anything written or recorded “by which a student may be individually identified, maintained by a school or at its direction or by an employee of a school, regardless of how or where the information is stored.” If a document contains anything that makes it possible to recognize you, it’s a record you can see. It doesn’t matter who created it, or how, or why.

Videos and photos are school records if it can be directly linked to the student. The exception is surveillance videos kept by law enforcement.

Permanent records must be kept for at least 60 years. Temporary records must be kept for at least 5 years after you leave school or graduate.

The FERPA regulations say permanent records must contain: your name and address, your parents’ names and addresses, transcripts, class rank, college entrance scores, attendance record, accident reports and health records, scores on state assessment tests for grades 9 through 12, and a list of anybody the records were released to.

Your temporary record is anything beyond your permanent record. The only required contents are assessment test scores for grades K through 8, and any school discipline involving “drugs, weapons, or bodily harm to another.”

Schools have to let students see everything in their permanent record. They don’t have to let students see their temporary record, but can.

Schools must let parents see both the permanent and temporary record if required by law. They must not have a court order excluding them from doing so. But once a student turns 18, only the student can see their records.

In Illinois, once a student or parent asks for school records, schools have 5 business days to provide access. Under FERPA, schools have 45 days to provide access. The school can charge a copying fee. The school can’t deny a request for copies due to an “inability to bear the cost of such copying.”

Access helps assure accuracy. So if you find errors in your record, you can file a challenge, and pursue it through your school’s procedures. You can’t challenge grades, however. You can file your own statement or explanation. The school must add this statement to your record.

Federal law requires schools notify students and parents of their right to view student records every year.