Dive Brief:
- Connecticut is poised to partly ban colleges in the state from withholding transcripts from students who owe them debts.
- Under a bill that passed the state’s House of Representatives on Tuesday, colleges generally wouldn’t be able to turn down students seeking their transcripts for jobs or prospective positions, or if they were applying to enter the U.S. military.
- However, the bill would not block colleges from withholding paperwork if students want to apply to or transfer to other institutions. The measure now heads to the desk of Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat.
Dive Insight:
While it’s historically commonplace for colleges to hold back transcripts of students who owe them money, the practice gained new notoriety as the pandemic drew attention to inequities.
Adult students, low-income learners, and those who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups are the most likely to have earned college credit without receiving a credential because their colleges withheld their transcripts, according to a 2020 report by research nonprofit Ithaka S+R.
An estimated 6.6 million students have those “stranded credits,” the report said.
Some colleges, public higher ed systems and states have started moving away from transcript holds. Notable recent examples include both of New York’s public higher ed networks — the City University of New York and State University of New York systems.
Several states, including California and Colorado, have also banned the practice.
