Have you ever tried to locate historical school records? Or even more recent records, like your own official school records?

You might be surprised to learn what is out there and what was destroyed a long time ago.

First, let’s talk about where the records were actually created – schools and universities.

Colleges and universities seem to retain student records forever. The registrar’s office can verify if a person ever attended the school and the years of enrollment. If the student is still living, he/she would have to make a signed request for a copy of transcripts. If deceased, an heir or other person might or might not be able to obtain the records. It would depend on the institution’s policies.

Be sure to check with older relatives, too, if hoping for, say, a grandparent’s school record. It’s possible that they might have actual report cards or other records in a box stuffed with old photos! It can’t hurt to ask.

Now, let’s discuss K-12 schools. There is no universal policy for retention of elementary, junior high and senior high school records at the local or state levels. Each district has its own policy and, sometimes, the elementary school policies differ from their own high schools.

My own school records are an excellent example. I began school in Passaic, New Jersey and moved to Wayne, New Jersey in the middle of 6th grade. That middle of the year change is actually very, very important.

My elementary school only sent photocopies of my cumulative record to my new school and it KEPT my original file, which was then stored in a file cabinet in the basement. It was never sent on to what would have been my Passaic junior high or senior high schools because I was never enrolled in those schools.

I later graduated from high school in Wayne, New Jersey. As a college freshman, I returned to my Passaic elementary school to observe classrooms (as an elementary education college major requirement) and I happened to ask if I could have copies of everything in my cumulative folder. That’s when I learned that my file was still sitting in the basement cabinet.

Out of curiosity, I asked what would have happened to my file at the high school level.

Many high school districts, including mine in Wayne, only keep student files for FIVE years after graduation. Then they are destroyed!

It’s been 62 years since I moved from Passaic and my elementary school is still open. I wonder if my school file is still in the basement? My guess would be yes! If I had gone on to junior and senior high school in Passaic, my original records would be long gone.

However, aside from original paperwork, there are a number of resources available to locate school information:

1. Newspapers – Local newspapers named children who participated in school plays, sports, music programs, honor societies, field trips and holiday events. Students on the current honor roll were listed in articles and sometimes photos accompanied the articles.
2. Local Libraries – All local libraries have items pertaining to local history in their collections. Vertical files might contain newspaper articles, photographs and even printed programs of school events. Ask for the reference librarian to determine what might be found in their collections.
3. Historical Societies – A local historical society might also have items pertaining to students and school events. In terms of town history, if a small local school was closed or moved to a new building, its records might have been donated to a historical society for preservation. If your ancestor attended class in a one-room schoolhouse, those school records might be in the historical society. If the school was part of a formal school district, then the district would maintain those records.
4. Yearbooks – Large sites like Ancestry and MyHeritage have large digital collections of school yearbooks that mostly cover high school years. However, as public education became more prevalent, photos were taken of individual classes and some elementary and junior high schools produced school yearbooks. If the school is still in existence, contact the school office and ask about old yearbooks and class photos. You might be very surprised at what might be fund in the school library.
5. Federal, State and School Censuses – Various federal and state censuses asked questions about children attending school and adult levels of education. I’ve actually seen a Nova Scotia school census from the 1800s, listing the names of all children attending the local school and Oklahoma took a school census in the early 1900s. My husband’s mother and her siblings are listed.