Washington work session spotlights pilot to digitize high school transcripts

The House Education Committee heard a work‑session briefing on efforts to digitize high‑school transcripts in Washington, a project presenters said could speed college admissions, ease transfers between districts and reduce clerical burdens on counselors and registrars.

The work session on digital transcript exchange, led by Melissa Beard of the Council of Presidents and including K‑12 staff and higher‑education enrollment managers, outlined a pilot project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and run through the Washington School Information Processing Cooperative that is building a structured digital file to replace PDF transcript images.

Committee chair Rep. Santos opened the session before presenters described the current process as complex and prone to delay. "We eat data. And so we like data, but we do not like files," said Jens Larsen, associate vice president for enrollment management at Eastern Washington University, summarizing a frequent complaint in higher education that PDF transcripts force manual re‑entry of information into campus systems.

Why it matters: Presenters told lawmakers that PDFs and paper transcripts add steps — students, counselors and registrars repeatedly request, send and re‑enter information — and that eliminating the PDF image and instead sharing structured data would speed review and reporting. "When after we have digitized the student's transcript, it takes us between 24 and 32 business hours to process a decision," Larsen said, citing Eastern Washington University's experience with digital ingest.

How the current system works: Amy Barrett, a national board‑certified school counselor in Edmonds School District, and Sean Schafer, Edmonds' information‑systems manager, walked the committee through a common pathway: students request unofficial transcripts from counselors, registrars upload official transcript images to third‑party repositories such as Naviance or Parchment, and those repositories forward PDFs to college admissions offices. Schafer said his district paid roughly $60,000 a year for one repository service and reported more than 1,800 transcript requests from current students in the 2023‑24 school year.

Consequences for students and staff: Presenters said delays range from a day or two to months; in some district‑to‑district transfers they described waits that can extend to a year or more. Barrett said digitized records would help transient students and seniors applying for scholarships, while Schafer said counselors and registrars spend time on clerical tasks that could otherwise be used for advising.

The pilot and next steps: Dr. Dana Anderson, chief executive officer of the Washington School Information Processing Cooperative (WSIPC), described a Gates Foundation‑funded pilot launched in November to define a digital file format and test exchanges between K‑12 districts and higher‑education institutions. Two fairly large districts have entered data‑sharing agreements so far, she said, and institutions of higher education have provided positive feedback on early iterations of the file format. Anderson said WSIPC is not currently requesting state funding for the next phase and hopes to expand district participation and convene a broad stakeholder community to refine data definitions and governance.

Privacy and security: Anderson said cybersecurity is a primary focus for the project; the system will be hosted in an Azure cloud environment, use geofencing, operate under partnership agreements and undergo external SOC audits. "Cybersecurity is one of our primary areas of focus," she said.

Unresolved questions and policy limits: Presenters noted some federal and accreditation constraints govern how institutions document completion for Title IV financial‑aid purposes and regional accreditation, which affects what documentation higher education requires. Larsen said institutions still have federal reporting and verification obligations that drive requests for official final transcripts at enrollment.

Design and equity: Committee members pressed presenters on inclusion. Anderson said the project plans in‑person design sessions and evaluation work to include student and family voices, foster‑care populations and first‑generation college households, and that those contributors will be invited into the community phase of the pilot.

What the committee heard about costs and charges: Panelists said districts currently pay third‑party vendors for repository services and that some alumni services (for transcripts older than two years) can carry fees in certain systems; at least one district uses Parchment for transcripts older than two years and charges alumni for those requests.

Next steps for legislators and agencies: Presenters and lawmakers discussed coordinating the pilot with OSPI's High School & Beyond platform so state infrastructure could adopt the agreed‑upon data specifications. Anderson said the project will hand over data specs and governance recommendations to guide broader implementation.

The committee did not take formal action but members signaled interest in a follow‑up work session and requested a list of project partners and planned community representatives.

Ending: The committee adjourned after thanking presenters and noting the pilot concludes at the end of the calendar year; lawmakers said they expected additional briefings as the project matures.