Can I Get My Child's School and Medical Records If I'm Not the Primary Parent?

Your child lives mostly with your ex, and suddenly the school will not return your calls and the pediatrician's office wants "the custodial parent's" permission. Washington law is on your side more than those front desks realize. The Law Office of Chad Foster helps Snohomish County clients with divorce and family-law matters.

Yes. Under RCW 26.09.225, each parent has full and equal access to the child's education and health care records unless a court order says otherwise, and neither parent can veto the other's access. Being the "non-primary" parent, the one with less residential time, does not reduce your right to see report cards, attendance records, or medical charts. The only thing that changes that is a specific court order restricting you. Here is what the statute covers, where the friction comes from, and what to do when access is being blocked.

The Rule: Equal Access, No Vetoes

RCW 26.09.225 was written for exactly this situation. Subsection (1) gives each parent full and equal access to the education and health care records of the child absent a court order to the contrary, and then adds the sentence that resolves most disputes: neither parent may veto the access requested by the other parent. For related guidance, see Can a Parent Convicted of a Sex Offense Against a Child Get Residential Time in Washington.

Read that carefully, because it settles the two most common myths. First, access does not follow the residential schedule. A parent with every-other-weekend time has the same right to records as the parent the child lives with all week. The statute does not mention residential time at all. Second, the other parent's preferences are legally irrelevant. The school that says "mom asked us not to share" or the clinic that wants the other parent's sign-off is following a policy the statute forbids. Your right runs directly to the records; it does not route through your ex. For related guidance, see Who Counts as the Custodial Parent in Washington, and Does It Control Who Claims the Child on Taxes.

This tracks the deeper structure of Washington parenting law. Washington does not use "custody" and "visitation" labels; both parents remain parents under a parenting plan, and record access is one of the rights that survives regardless of how residential time is divided.

What Records Are Covered

Health care records means the child's medical records: the pediatrician's chart, immunization records, dental records, and the like. Educational records get a more precise definition in the statute. Under RCW 26.09.225(2), they include academic, attendance, and disciplinary records of public and private schools in grades kindergarten through twelve, including alternative schools, for periods when you are paying child support or the child is in fact your dependent. Subsection (3) extends a narrower window into college records: enrollment and academic records of postsecondary institutions, limited to what is necessary to determine, establish, or continue postsecondary educational support under RCW 26.19.090.

That postsecondary provision matters more than it looks. A parent ordered to help pay for college is entitled to verify that the young adult is actually enrolled and progressing, which is precisely the information the statute unlocks.

A few practical edges: federal law generally points the same direction, since FERPA, through 34 C.F.R. 99.4, requires schools to give full rights to either parent unless they have been shown a court order, statute, or other legally binding document that specifically revokes those rights, and schools will typically add a second parent to mailing lists, portals, and conference schedules on request. For health records, providers may have their own consent workflows, and Washington law lets adolescents consent to certain kinds of care themselves, which under RCW 70.02.130 can limit what any parent sees of those specific records. If a specific record matters, ask for it in writing and cite RCW 26.09.225.

When Access Can Be Restricted

The statute's one qualifier is "absent a court order to the contrary." Courts can and do restrict a parent's record access, usually where safety demands it: cases involving domestic violence where an address must stay confidential, or findings under RCW 26.09.191 that limit a parent's role. If your parenting plan or a protection order contains language restricting access to records or information, that order controls, and the path to more access runs through modifying the order, not pressuring the school.

The flip side: if no order restricts you, a blanket refusal by the other parent or an institution is not legally sustainable. And if you are the parent seeking restrictions, because the other parent uses records to track the child's location or harass providers, that is a request to make to the court, with evidence, rather than an instruction to give the school.

What to Do When You Are Stonewalled

Start soft and get formal fast. Step one, make a written request to the school or provider, attach the parenting plan if you have one, and quote the statute's equal access language. Most refusals evaporate at that point, because front-office staff follow the loudest parent until someone shows them the law. Step two, if the other parent is the obstacle, have your lawyer send the request, pointing out that no order authorizes a veto. Step three, if the blocking continues, ask the court to enforce the parenting plan or, where the interference is part of a pattern, to address it in a modification or contempt proceeding. Persistent gatekeeping of school and medical information rarely travels alone; it tends to accompany schedule violations and decision-making disputes that deserve the court's attention together.

Keep your own file as you go: portal screenshots, denied requests, dates. If the dispute reaches a courtroom, the parent with a paper trail wins the credibility contest.

A Note on Adolescents' Own Privacy

One boundary on every parent's access comes from the child rather than the court. Washington lets adolescents consent to certain care themselves, most prominently outpatient mental health treatment from age 13 under RCW 71.34.530, and records of care a minor lawfully consented to on their own sit largely under the minor's control under RCW 70.02.130. For adolescent mental health records specifically, RCW 70.02.265 tells the provider not to volunteer them to a parent unless the teen agrees or there is an imminent safety threat, and lets the provider decline a parent's request when disclosure would harm the teen. Those rules apply to both parents equally. A therapist who declines to hand over session notes may be respecting the teen's statutory privacy rather than taking your ex's side, a distinction covered in can a 13-year-old consent to mental health treatment in Washington. Knowing which refusals are unlawful gatekeeping and which are lawful privacy saves parents from fighting the wrong battles.

Stay in the Picture

Report cards, IEP meetings, diagnoses, prescriptions: these are not perks for the parent with more overnights, they are part of being a parent, and Washington law treats them that way. If a school, a provider, or your ex is standing between you and your child's records, the Law Office of Chad Foster can usually fix it with a letter, and knows what to do when a letter is not enough. Call 425.785.8679 to talk with a Snohomish County family law attorney about enforcing your access rights.