STUDENT SCHOOL RECORDS

House Bill 4975 (Substitute H-2)

Sponsor:  Rep. Frank Accavitti, Jr.

Committee:  Health Policy

Complete to 11-8-04

A REVISED SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 4975 (SUBSTITUTE H-2)

The bill would revise requirements pertaining to student records when enrolling or transferring students, replace the term "student record" with "student school record", and define "school record". 

Currently, when a student is enrolled for the first time in a local or intermediate school district, the school district is required to notify the person enrolling the student that the student's birth certificate or other identifying documentation must be provided within 30 days.  The school district must notify the local law enforcement agency if the person fails to provide the documentation within the time period or if the affidavit explaining the person's inability to provide a birth certificate appears to be false.  House Bill 4975 would amend the Revised School Code to also apply this provision to public school academies.

Furthermore, the code requires a school, within 14 days of enrolling a transfer student, to request in writing from the student's previous school a copy of his or her school record.  The bill would expand this provision, as well as the requirement to comply within 30 days, to apply to a school district, intermediate school district, public school academy, or nonpublic school. 

"School record", as used in the bill, would be defined as including, but not limited to, the following:

·                    Attendance record or summary.

·                    Academic record showing grades completed and courses passed.

·                    Disciplinary record of all final, pending, and initiated suspensions or expulsions, descriptions of the primary incidents that led to the action to suspend or expel the student, dates when the incidents occurred, and any other information that the sending school considers appropriate.  This information could be presented in a summary format.

·                    Health records and information that was part of the student's education record.

·                    The student's current individualized education program, if any.

MCL 380.1135

FISCAL IMPACT:

HB 4975 would have no fiscal impact to the state, but could create an indeterminate local cost to schools.  The bill expands the number and type of documents that are considered to be part of a student's record and therefore must be forwarded to a student's new school under Sec. 1135.  Specifically, it requires schools to copy and forward the resulting copies of attendance records, academic records, disciplinary records (including an optional summary of incidents), health records, and individualized education programs, all of which are not currently required to be forwarded.  There could be an indeterminate cost to schools in copying and forwarding these documents.  In addition, staff time may be necessary to summarize disciplinary incidents should schools choose to do so.

                                                                                           Legislative Analyst:   Susan Stutzky

                                                                                                  Fiscal Analyst:   Laurie Cummings

■ This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.