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FERPA Record Changes to Name and Gender – November 2025

Published on

DATE:   
November 24, 2025

TO:  
Building Principals
Secondary Attendance Secretaries
Secondary Registrars
Secondary School Counselors

FROM:    
Michael Anderson, Associate Superintendent
Travis Hamblin, Director, Student Services
Caleb Olson, Enrollment Consultant, Student Services

SUBJECT:  
Name and Gender Changes on FERPA Records (November 2025)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) allows a parent/guardian or eligible student (a student 18+ years of age) the opportunity to request changes or amendments to the contents of their education record. Policy AS61 - Student Records and Transcripts requires that these requests be made to the building principal.

There has been an increase in recent years of graduated students who would like to have the name or gender on their official transcript/diploma changed. These requests would fall under the provisions of FERPA outlined above and, absent a compelling reason, should be honored. Use the guidelines below when processing these requests:

  1. The individual making the request must have rights to the record. Once a student has turned 18, these rights transfer to the student themselves, so a parent would be unable to make the request.
  2. The request must be made in writing for record keeping purposes.
  3. If the request comes after both the student has graduated and at least one Skyward rollover has occurred, it can be processed immediately. If the request comes prior to the student’s graduation (even if the student is not active in Jordan District), Information Systems will need to be consulted to avoid creating duplicate students.
    1. Once the student has graduated and a rollover has occurred, the student is no longer reported to UTREX, so there is less concern over creating duplicate records.
  4. Official documentation must accompany the request. For a name change, this would be the court order authorizing the change. For a gender change, a new legal birth certificate with the changed gender must be provided.
  5. Copy the documentation and attach it to whatever form of record the school maintains. For high schools, this is likely the hard copy of the transcript.
  6. The change can be entered in Skyward and a new copy of the requested document can be created. If the request is for a new transcript, the updated version can be sent to Parchment after the student submits a request with the new name/gender.
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