Dear FERPA Professor,
Our institution was asked to take over transcripts from another school that closed in 2015. A student requested a copy of her transcript, but we can’t locate it in what we received. The student is upset and says she is being denied access to her education records. So my question is, how liable are we when we don’t have a student’s transcript?
Thank you,
Verie Lee
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Verie,
FERPA requires that a student be provided with the opportunity to ‘inspect and review’ any of the requesting student’s education records maintained by the institution. In your case, if your institution maintained the requested record you would be responsible for providing this opportunity to the student. However, the only time FERPA requires that the institution maintain a record is when it exists at the time the request was made. If, in the case of this particular student, the requested record was not being maintained, then there is no obligation under FERPA for the institution to create the record.
I hope this is helpful in answering your question.
The FERPA Professor
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