STATE OF MICHIGAN

FRANK J. KELLEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL

Opinion No. 6064

April 30, 1982

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW:

Const 1963, art 8, Sec. 2--system of free public elementary and secondary school includes right to receive student records

SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS:

Authority of school district to withhold records of student for failure of student or parent to pay fees

A school district must furnish the records of a student upon request of another school district in which the student is enrolled as an incident to the operation of free public elementary and secondary schools required by Const 1963, art 8, Sec. 2, and is precluded from withholding the records because the student or his or her parents are indebted to the school district possessing the records for fees or other charges.

Honorable James E. O'Neill, Jr.

State Representative

The Capitol

Lansing, Michigan 48909

You have requested my opinion on the following question:

The School Code of 1976, 1976 PA 451; MCLA 380.1 et seq; MSA 15.4001 et seq, does not contain any express provision relating to disclosure of student records by a local school district to another school district. Research has failed to reveal any controlling provision in any other statute.

Const 1963, art 8, Sec. 2 provides for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools. In Bond v Ann Arbor School Dist, 383 Mich 693, 178 NW2d 484 (1980), the Supreme Court held that this provision requires a school district to furnish, free of charge, those things which are either necessary elements of any school's activity or an integral fundamental part of elementary and secondary education. Applying either test, books and school supplies are an essential part of a system of free public elementary and secondary schools.

The Supreme Court in the Bond case relied upon the decision of the Idaho Supreme Court in Paulson v Minidoka County School Dist No 331, 93 Idaho 469; 463 P2d 935 (1970). In that case, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional requirement of free common schools included student records contained in a transcript. The court also ruled that a school district may not withhold issuance of a student's transcript as a means of enforcing the payment of a $12.50 fee for textbooks and a $12.50 fee for school activities.

School districts obviously must and do maintain academic records of their students and could not operate without such records. The student's education is evidenced by his or her records, which indicate courses and years completed, grades earned, test scores and other related information. If the education must be free, it follows that the record or evidence of that education must also be provided free when it is required so as to enable the student to continue his or her elementary or secondary education in a new school district. The new school district must have the student's records in order to ascertain the student's academic progress and to properly place him or her in an appropriate grade and course of instruction. These records are, thus, necessary elements of any school's activity and an integral fundamental part of education.

It is my opinion, therefore, that a school district must furnish the records of a student upon request of another school district in which the student is enrolled as an incident to the operation of free public elementary and secondary schools required by Const 1963, art 8, Sec. 2, and is precluded from withholding the records because the student or his or her parents are indebted to the school district possessing the records for fees or other charges.

Frank J. Kelley