St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College discloses information from a student’s education records to parent(s)/guardian(s) if the student has authorized disclosure of education records to the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s), or if the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s) claim(s) the student as a dependent for federal tax purposes.
St. Olaf College cannot, however, assume the dependency status of all of our students and thus requires verification of status in order to release records to a student’s parent(s)/guardian(s). To this end, all students are required to complete the Permissions hold in SIS annually.
If a dependent student does not grant authorization via the “Release Form for Disclosure to Parents/Guardians,” the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s) may request disclosure of education records by submitting a letter indicating that the parent(s) declare(s) the student as a dependent on his/her/their most recent federal income tax form (IRS Code of 1954, Section 152). The tax form must be accompanied by a letter, addressed to the appropriate office, that identifies the student and specifies the information needed from the education record. The office will notify the student that a request for confidential information has been received, and that the office intends to comply with the request, unless the request comes from a parent/guardian to whom the student has specifically denied disclosure of education records, even if the student is dependent of that parent for federal income tax purposes.