An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 14 – Pupil Records

its financial policies. Although there is no clear guidance on this issue, it is unlikely that purely financial records, such as invoices or records of payment of tuition and fees, constitute pupil records because they relate only tangentially to the pupil’s educational experience. We therefore recommend that, when an adult pupil directs a school to withhold pupil record information from his/her parents, the school make clear to the adult student that financial records that relate to the parents’ contractual obligation to pay tuition and fees are not pupil records that the pupil has the right to control.

Similarly, the California Family Code provides both custodial and non-custodial parents broad rights in terms of accessing minor children’s “school records.” 2089 Neither the Education Code nor the Family Code limits parental access in terms of who contracted with the school. Absent a court order that a parent has had his or her parental rights terminated, schools are obligated to provide pupil records and school records to a pupil’s parent. Under the Education Code, a school district must provide the records within five business days following the date of the request. 2090 While the Education Code does not explicitly impose the same five business day deadline on private schools, private schools should respond to requests for pupil records promptly. The school is not obligated to provide copies of the records; rather, the school only need allow the parents or student to inspect and review the records on school premises during regular school hours. 2091 LCW Practice Advisor While the law is somewhat unclear, schools can likely charge for the actual cost for reproducing copies of the records, but cannot charge for time spent searching for the records. 2092

A parent may claim that a non-custodial parent, or one who is not a party to the enrollment agreement, should not be given access to his or her child’s records. However, unless parental rights have been taken away by a court or there are significant safety concerns, both parents have a right to access their child’s pupil records.

LCW Practice Advisor

Non-custodial parents’ rights are somewhat limited under the Education Code. Only a parent with “legal custody” has a statutory right to challenge the content of a pupil record, offer a written response to information in the record, or consent to the release of information in the record to others. 2093 A private school may extend the right to a non-custodial parent, but it is not obligated to do so.

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 504