More people who graduated from Metro Schools are asking for papers that prove it. Officials believe the surge in requests for old transcripts is due in part to the recent change in federal immigration policy. Now undocumented immigrants won’t be deported, if they can prove they finished high school here.
Metro says it’s getting twice the usual number of requests for transcripts, sending workers hunting through records that go back decades on microfilm.
But officials can’t know exactly how many are from people who need them to avoid deportation and get work permits. In summer it’s typical to send lots of records to colleges as part of applications, and those numbers are up as well.
Taffy Marsh oversees Metro’s records center. Marsh says the response has been far greater than expected, since the executive order to defer some deportations.
“We expected some requests, but we really had no idea of the volume that was going to take place. So we have hired five temporary employees to help us process that volume… We have a ten-day turnaround time right now, and we are barely managing that.”
Marsh says Metro Schools put off converting its old records to digital in order to save money, but is working on doing so now.
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