Leon’s Law

Leon’s Law, SL 2025-46/HB 378, is an act requiring the State Board of Community Colleges to direct community colleges to set forth a policy that provides education records of minor students to their parents or legal guardians, regardless of the student’s consent, if the student is a dependent. The law applies to all minor students, Traditional, CCP/Dual Enrollment, Continuing Education, College and Career Readiness, Occupational Extension, Adult Education, and Basic Skills students. No matter the length or format of the course.

Leon’s Law does not apply to adult students (over age 18), regardless of dependency status, disability status, or legal guardianship. Students over age 18 do not need to complete the Leon’s Law acknowledgment form, even if they are tax dependents.

More background information about why this law was put into place is available here.

Leon’s Law must be enacted during the 2025-2026 academic year. The State Board of Community Colleges will provide future directives to adopt policy in compliance with Leon’s Law.  While it may not be possible to fully implement the law before the start of the academic year, colleges must make a good-faith effort to apply the law as quickly as possible. One option for colleges is to start collecting completed forms from all new minor student applicants now and from current minor students who have not yet submitted a form during registration for the next term.

Every college should require minor students to complete a form, prior to registration, acknowledging the conditions of Leon’s Law and their rights under FERPA. If a minor student refuses to sign the Leon’s Law acknowledgment form, they are not eligible to take any college classes.

We have provided a template to assist each college in developing a form. The form must include at least the following:

1. To the extent allowed under FERPA, and unless the parent opts out of receiving education records, colleges must provide parents with access to a minor student’s education records. (See also Leon’s Law definition of a parent and FERPA exception.)
   1. To the extent allowed under FERPA, colleges must provide access  to a minor student’s education records to school administrators and school counselors at the school in which the student is dually enrolled.

See Question 16 for additional information on how to provide access to education records.

How often students must complete the acknowledgement form is a local college decision. Because students may register multiple times with breaks in between, it’s usually most effective to collect the form at each new enrollment/application. This approach can apply to both Continuing Education (CE) and Curriculum (CU) students, depending on the college’s policy.

Leon’s Law adopts the FERPA definition of education records. 34 C.F.R. § 99.3

Education records include, but are not limited to:

• Academic Information: grades, transcripts, attendance, student course schedules,
• Learning Management System (LMS) data, submitted assignments, email exchanges, etc.
• Financial Information: financial aid applications, tuition payments, and scholarships (not parents’ taxes)
• Individual: library records, disability services records, advising records/notes, and, student discipline files.

The documents must be retained in compliance with the NCCCS records and retention policies.

Leon’s Law only applies to minor dependent students under the age of 18.

• When a student turns 18, the student can choose to update their FERPA consent in accordance with college policy.
• Students over 18 who are dually enrolled are still subject to information-sharing agreements between the college and the LEA.
• Leon’s Law does not require colleges to send special notice to students, parents, or high schools when a student turns 18; however, colleges may elect to adopt a notification process.
• Leon’s Law does not apply to adult students (over age 18), regardless of dependency status, disability status, or legal guardianship.

Leon’s Law does not conflict with FERPA. FERPA contains an exception that states colleges may, but are not required to, disclose education records to parents, without the consent of the eligible student, if the student is a “dependent student” as that term is defined in Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code. 34 CFR §99.31(a)(8), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1)(H), 26 U.S. Code § 152.

Leon’s Law mandates that colleges apply the FERPA 34 CFR 99.31(a)(8) education records disclosure exception for minor dependent students, thereby requiring disclosure of education records to parents without student consent unless the parent opts out of receiving the records. 

Leon’s Law does not require students to provide their consent; it requires students to acknowledge that the law mandates the release of their education records to parents and school officials in accordance with the FERPA

Legal Precedent

DRM Media vs. Folt: NC Supreme Court of Appeals & Supreme Court upheld that a federal law’s “may” cannot be constrained by a state law’s “must.”

Leon’s Law mandates the disclosure of education records to parents even without minor student consent if the FERPA dependent student exception applies. 

Minor students must acknowledge Leon’s Law. If a minor student refuses to sign the acknowledgment form, they are not eligible to take college courses.  Colleges cannot waive the Leon’s Law acknowledgment to allow enrollment.

Minor students can choose not to waive FERPA rights, but they must acknowledge that colleges will still share the information as required by Leon’s Law.

• Having a FERPA waiver/consent form does not negate the need for a Leon’s Law acknowledgement form.
• Leon’s Law acknowledgment form is required for college enrollment
• FERPA waiver/consent is helpful, but not required
• If the college has a FERPA waiver /consent form on file, the college does not need to apply the FERPA dependency exception.

1. Colleges must apply the FERPA dependent student exception if the student is claimed as a dependent on the parent’s federal income tax return.
2. Leon’s Law does not apply to students under 18 who are not claimed as a dependent on their parent’s federal income tax return.

Generally, if the parent has claimed the student as a dependent on the parent’s most recent income tax return, a school may disclose the student’s education records to the parent without the eligible student’s consent. 34 CFR §99.31(a)(8), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1)(H), 26 U.S. Code § 152

• Leon’s Law and FERPA defines a parent as the parent, guardian, or an individual acting as a parent in the absence of a parent or guardian of the minor student.
• Under FERPA, if the child provides written consent to release education records to the parent, colleges can use the consent to share information with parents.
• If the child has not provided written consent to release education records to the parent, the college shall nevertheless provide the records under Leon’s Law if the FERPA dependent student exception definitions apply.

Colleges should use their local policy to verify the identity of individuals requesting access to education records/personally identifiable information.

This is a local decision. However, colleges are encouraged to adopt best practices and provide a straightforward implementation workflow. Colleges may use the provided Parent(s) Certification of Student’s Dependent Status form template to collect IRS dependency information. Use of this form is optional for additional due diligence but not required under Leon’s Law.

When confirming parent status for exercising the FERPA dependent student exception

1. Colleges cannot use the listed parent in high school documents (i.e. Infinite Campus, Power Schools, transcripts, etc.) to confirm parents. These documents do not provide verification of tax dependency as required for the FERPA dependent student exception.
2. If a parent refuses to or cannot provide the required income tax documentation, colleges can ask the minor student if they want to complete a FERPA waiver/consent form to grant authorization to educational records.
3. If neither/no parent files tax returns, and the minor child chooses not to complete a FERPA waiver/consent form, the college should do their due diligence in confirming dependency.

Under the IRS definition, being dependent means the minor student

1. bears a relationship to the taxpayer,
2. same principal place of abode for more than half a year,
3. meets the age requirement,
4. has not provided over half their support in a calendar year,
5. has not filed a joint return.

If the College can confidently confirm these factors, then they would be a dependent within Leon’s Law. If they cannot prove dependency, then the parent does not meet the requirements to receive access to educational records under the FERPA dependent student exception.

This is a local decision driven by the college’s policy and procedure and in compliance with FERPA. However, the process must be clear to parents and students. To streamline communication with parents of dually enrolled/CCP students, it may be prudent to develop a process where parents seeking access to their minor child’s post-secondary record contact the CCP liaison.

No, parents should follow the college’s established process to access their minor child’s education record.

Leon’s Law does not explicitly mandate automatic disclosures; however, it is considered best practice for colleges to:

• Make available easily accessible and readily available information (e.g., final course grades or overall GPA).
• Notify parents or high school officials when a minor student may benefit from academic or support services.
• Where available, activate available tools that offer parents on-demand or more “automatic” information (e.g., Self-Service proxy access, IntelliBoard reports, or early-alert systems).

Leon’s Law does not specify a specific response time, but colleges should respond as quickly as possible in accordance with your local policy and procedures. Under FERPA, a school or State educational agency (SEA) must provide students and eligible parents an opportunity to inspect and review their education records within a reasonable period of time, but not more than 45 calendar days following the receipt of a request.

This is a local decision. However, colleges are encouraged to adopt best practices and provide a clear implementation workflow. The methodology will also depend on the type of information requested.

While FERPA does not specifically prohibit a school from disclosing personally identifiable information from a student’s education records over the telephone, it does require that the school use reasonable methods to identify and authenticate the identity of parents, students, school officials, and any other parties to whom the school discloses personally identifiable information from education records. 34 CFR § 99.31(c).

Potential ways to verify identity over the phone:

• Call-back Protocols: Staff may hang up and return the call using the parent’s phone number on file to ensure the caller is who they claim to be.
• Pre-established PINs or Passwords: Parents may be assigned a unique code or password during enrollment, which they must provide during phone calls.
• Security Questions: Colleges may ask parents to answer pre-set security questions

No, Leon’s Law gives parents the right to access their minor student’s education
records. It does not give parent’s right to make academic decisions on the minor
student’s behalf.

Today, there is no standard practice that the System Office recommends colleges use if they would like to record parent information in Colleague, but there are a few options. Using EMPC Emergency/Missing Person Contacts is one option. Currently, parent contact information is collected on the CFNC CCP and CIHS apps and is imported into Colleague. Students can add/update this information directly in Self-Service.

The responses to questions 14-20 also apply to High School administrators and counselors.