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SDLA Compliance Resource

Transfer the Mandatory Permanent Pupil Record After a Receiving-School Request

A 10-schoolday cumulative-record workflow that gives the receiving school the academic, health, discipline, disability, and placement information needed for safe and accurate enrollment.

  • Attendance
  • Pupil Records
Date(s)No later than 10 schooldays after receiving the school-to-school request, unless a faster population-specific rule applies
Applies toCalifornia public and private schools transferring a pupil within the state

In Plain Language: When a pupil transfers between California public or private schools, the former school must send the permanent record or a copy within 10 schooldays after receiving the new school’s request. The receiving public school must notify the parent of the right to a copy and the right to a hearing to challenge the record’s content.

Why this matters

The cumulative folder supports placement, credit, graduation, immunization, safety, discipline, and disability services. A transcript alone may not be the mandatory permanent record, and local debts do not justify withholding records when another law prohibits it or a protected pupil has faster rights.

Joint ownership

Requester: receiving-school registrar. Sender: prior-school records custodian. Content partners: counseling, health, discipline, special education/504, attendance, assessment, and program offices.

From a receiving-school request to a reconciled permanent record: the SDLA ITO workflow

The former school has 10 schooldays after the request, including nonholiday weekdays in summer. This SDLA ITO (Input, Transformation, Output) graphic shows how the receiving school's request, the permanent record, and the parent notice become the request and deadline, the content manifest, and the transmission and reconciliation record.

SDLA ITO: eleven steps from the receiving school's request, the permanent record, and the parent notice, through dating the request, assembling the record, secure transfer, and reconciliation, to the request and deadline, the content manifest, and the transmission and reconciliation record.
Read down each column, then move to the next: Input identifies what to collect; Transformation covers dating the request, assembling the record, secure transfer, and reconciliation; Output covers the request and deadline, the content manifest, and the transmission and reconciliation record. Send within 10 schooldays after receiving the request, unless a faster population-specific rule applies.

Open the full-size workflow graphic

Operational workflow

  1. Receiving school sends a secure, dated request identifying the pupil and records needed and notifies the parent of copy and challenge-hearing rights.
  2. Prior school records the receipt date and calculates 10 schooldays, including nonholiday weekdays during summer break.
  3. Assemble the permanent/cumulative record, including transcript, immunization, applicable suspension/expulsion records, IEP and other required components.
  4. Transfer securely by the deadline with a manifest; retain the original or copy required by records-retention rules.
  5. Receiving school reconciles the folder to placement, credits, health, services, SIS/CALPADS history, and missing components.

Evidence to retain

  • Dated request and calculated deadline
  • Parent notice of copy and hearing rights
  • Cumulative-record content manifest
  • Secure transmission and receipt confirmation
  • Missing-record follow-up and receiving-school reconciliation

Official guidance and help

Source review completed August 30, 2026. Verify current law, official guidance, local policy, language access, individual circumstances, and the exact persisted attendance or pupil-record state before acting.