Prohibition on Withholding of Student Transcripts for Unpaid Bills

On May 4, 2022, Governor Hochul signed legislation prohibiting all degree-granting colleges and universities in New York State from withholding the transcripts of students and graduates with unpaid balances. The law also applies to licensed career schools and bans inferior treatment of transcript requests from students with outstanding debts. The Boards of Trustees of CUNY and SUNY approved similar policies for schools in their systems in January 2022. For more information, including fines, see the text of the law and the Governor’s press release.