# Do schools, grades 1 thru 12 share transcripts of completed work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2025, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027 "2025-11-21T02:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/1 "2025-11-21T02:54:38Z")
What happens when a child is moved to a new school? Do the schools request transcripts like colleges? I attended grades 1 thru 3 in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts in the mid 1960’s. My family moved to Arkansas. I remember taking several placement tests before they allowed me into the 4th grade. I’ve heard teacher’s grade books were kept for record keeping. The grade book recorded the child’s attendance and grades on tests. But, that wouldn’t leave the school. I know today it’s all on computers. Do schools share that information for transfer students? Home schooling, church schools, and private academies must make it confusing to place transfer students in the new school. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/2 "2025-11-21T03:02:05Z")
Yep! Grades, standardized test scores, vaccine and other medical records, absences and tardies, identification of any disabilities and accommodations, and plenty more. These are standard transfers between schools. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/3 "2025-11-21T03:11:24Z")
In Massachusetts there are regulations defining exactly what will be provided, when and to whom. Basically a transcript, disciplinary and attendance records, IEPs, other accommodations and I think vaccinations. Can be sent directly to another public school or to a custodial parent or guardian. Cite: My wife helps non-English speaking parents navigate school bureaucracy. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/4 "2025-11-21T03:14:17Z")
Thank you. I’ve wondered about old school records for awhile. Things have changed significantly since I graduated high school in the mid 70’s. I don’t have any school records. I misplaced my high school diploma decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/5 "2025-11-21T03:27:10Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I attended grades 1 thru 3 in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts in the mid 1960’s. > > My family moved to Arkansas. You moved from Cape Cod to Arkansas? That’s got to be a story in of itself. When I was in high school in Wisconsin (graduated in 1979) the VP knew every shenanigan I pulled in middle school. I was amazed at the details he had. So I assume they share everything. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/6 "2025-11-21T03:32:04Z")
My dad transferred to a new military base. Moving South was a cultural shock for me. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/7 "2025-11-21T03:37:19Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > My dad transferred to a new military base. > Moving South was a cultural shock for me I can imagine. We had family friends in Arkansas (Searcy, White County) so I had been there about 8 times as a kid. Even in that area I found them “hillbillyish” and weird. And rustic. That was in the early to mid 60’s thru the late 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/8 "2025-11-21T03:49:30Z")
Isn’t this all part of the mythical “Permanent Record”? 😄 I wonder how long they hold on to everything. Surely the elementary school I attended in the 60s hasn’t got a file on me… ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/9 "2025-11-21T05:31:57Z")
White county still has its version of hill people. They’re just like old fashioned unurbanized people anywhere. When you’re not exposed to it, you have no idea what it is..doesn’t mean you cannot understand it. Yes your permanent record is still following you. Hanging in the shadows waiting to come down hard, when you least expect it. Don’t you wish you didn’t throw Sally’s book bag in the mud, now? The school you attended in the 60s and 70s surely has a school central office. This is where the permanent records and graduation rolls are kept. In my county, at least. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/10 "2025-11-21T16:35:08Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Yes your permanent record is still following you. Hanging in the shadows waiting to come down hard, when you least expect it Heh. In mid 1981 when I was interviewing for a Sheriff Deputy position the interviewer on the county board said “your permanent record reflects you missed a lot of school your junior and senior years in high school.” I replied I hadn’t missed it at all. This was like 18 years before the movie Office Space came out. It didn’t get much of a laugh but I did get the job (quite a feat for a white male at the time) and served 25 years including obtaining the rank of Detective. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/11 "2025-11-21T17:18:01Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > My family moved to Arkansas. I remember taking several placement tests before they allowed me into the 4th grade. Even if transcripts and other records are sent , there will probably still be placement tests for the younger grades. Otherwise, there would be a lot more of “my old school covered fractions in 4th grade but my new school covers them in third grade so I missed it altogether” . At any rate, a transcipt is just a listing of classes and grades. It can be created at the point where it’s needed, although it’s probably kind of useless pre-high school. By high school most courses are specific - you took biology or chemistry or physics in 10th grade, not “10th grade science” or American History not “11th grade social studies”. A transcript that has grades for 1st grade math and 3rd grade social studies and 4th grade English is kind of useless because not every school /district follows the same curriculum. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/12 "2025-11-21T18:54:32Z")
This is not in the US, but one of my childhood friends decided to emigrate from the US to Australia around 2015, so at about age 50. We grew up in Pakistan. He came to the US after undergrad, all he ever had to do was show transcripts of his undergraduate education in Pakistan. But Australia wanted to see records of all 16 hears of education that was used in their scoring. He was able to get his records from our grade 6-10 and grade 11-12 schools no problem. But the private “primary school” we attended was “nationalized” schools in early 1970s and the previous owners had no interest in preserving records. But he was able to get some documentation from the provincial government to say that (a) the school had existed in the relevant timeframe and (b) the secondary schools did not admit students who didn’t have a record of attending at least five years of primary school. And this was enough for the Australian authorities. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/13 "2025-11-21T19:14:10Z")
I moved from Montreal to Los Angeles in November of 10th grade. Now that was a tangle, since the two school systems were utterly incompatible. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/14 "2025-11-21T22:16:29Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > But Australia wanted to see records of all 16 hears of education that was used in their scoring. That’s just nasty. Here is what my state (Vic.gov.au) has to say: > [@](#): > > Please bear in mind that primary school reports may no longer be available. Prior to November 2022, primary school reports were only required to be kept for 6 years after a student exited the school, after which time the school was legally permitted to dispose of the record. When I moved to Melbourne, my parents just put me into an age-appropriate school. No transfer of records at all. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/15 "2025-11-22T01:09:15Z")
They did when I transferred schools in the 1970s - though delays in delivering some records meant I had to get some vaccines a second time (I think), and according to a _hilarious_ story an administrator told at a Gifted and Talented meeting, the delay in delivery of my test results (and presumably, my speech defect) led him to think I was handicapped until he got the paperwork. Not that I’m bitter (no, he didn’t mention me by name, but I think it was clear). ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2025, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-schools-grades-1-thru-12-share-transcripts-of-completed-work/1025027/16 "2025-11-22T01:46:13Z")
I used to work on the US Department of Education’s Migrant Student Information Exchange (MSIX) - a web site for schools to exchange academic information for students of migrant workers. Those kids may not be in one place for an entire school year. MSIX was part of the No Child Left behind Law. Nice program, and I worked with great folks on both the contractor and government sides. The web site is still up!