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Troubleshooting FERPA Status in Scoir

Brad B Updated by Brad B

Scoir can display two separate FERPA statuses for a student, and they are different documents signed in different places. Most FERPA confusion starts with mixing them up.

Scoir FERPA

Common App FERPA

What it is

Your school’s FERPA Release Authorization and Waiver of Rights, configured by your school

The FERPA release authorization each applicant completes inside Common App

Where it’s signed

In Scoir (by the student, and by a parent/guardian if your school requires it)

In Common App only — it cannot be signed or changed from Scoir

Where the status appears

The Scoir FERPA panel on the student’s profile

The Common App panel on the student’s profile (only at schools using the Scoir + Common App integration)

Who can fix a problem

The student’s counselor (see below)

Usually resolves via the integration sync; see troubleshooting below

If your school doesn’t use the Common App integration, you’ll only see the Scoir FERPA.

Part 1: Scoir FERPA problems

A student selected the wrong option and wants to change it

Students cannot change their own FERPA selection after signing or withholding it — this is by design, because colleges and recommenders rely on the stated waiver status. Only a counselor can reset it.

Counselors — to reset a student’s FERPA so they can re-sign:

  1. Open the student’s Overview tab.
  2. Click the pencil icon next to the FERPA section.
  3. Set the status to unsigned and save.
  4. The student will be prompted to sign again and can make the correct selection this time.

☝️ Resetting to unsigned and having the student re-sign keeps the signature legitimately theirs. This matters: recommenders and colleges may not act on a waiver that appears to have been completed by someone other than the student.

Don’t confuse “reset” with “mark as signed”

Counselors also have the ability to mark a FERPA Release or Waiver as signed on a student’s behalf. This is not a signature:

  • FERPA marked as signed by a counselor will not populate into the student’s document packet
  • The record will show it was completed by you, not the student — which can make teachers hesitant to upload recommendation letters

Only use mark-as-signed when a student has provided a signed FERPA document outside of Scoir and you don’t want them prompted again. In every other case — including fixing a mistake — use reset to unsigned and have the student re-sign.

A parent can’t sign the FERPA Release

Whether a parent sees the signing prompt depends on two things, and both must be true:

  1. Your school’s FERPA configuration routes the Release to parents. Schools choose whether the Release goes to students regardless of age or to a parent when the student is under 18 (School Settings → FERPA configuration). If the Release appears grayed out or unavailable for some students, check how your configuration applies to that group — the student’s age and your routing setting determine who gets the prompt.
  2. The parent account is linked to the student at their current school. A parent link carried over from a previous school (e.g., after a transfer) can prevent the prompt from appearing even though the accounts look connected. School staff can update the parent link to the current school — parents experiencing this should contact the counseling office rather than Scoir support.

If your configuration routes to parents and the link reflects the current school but the prompt still doesn’t appear, contact support with the student’s name and the parent’s account email.

Do FERPA signatures carry over between school years?

Yes — Scoir FERPA signatures persist. Students who sign the Release and Waiver in the spring do not need to re-sign in the fall.

☝️ Don’t confuse this with the Common App side: Common App resets college-specific answers each August 1 — including the Common App FERPA in the Recommenders & FERPA section — so students who prepped their Common App early will need to redo those items after August 1 even though their Scoir FERPA is untouched.

Part 2: Common App FERPA problems (integrated schools)

Scoir says the Common App FERPA is “Not Signed,” but the student signed it in Common App

This status comes to Scoir from Common App through the integration, and the sync is near real time — when a student signs the CA FERPA, the status should reflect in Scoir within minutes. A status that hasn’t updated shortly after signing is a sign something is wrong — don’t wait it out. Work through these in order; they cover the known causes:

  1. Confirm the right Common App account is connected. The link is established the moment the student signs in to Common App during the connection process — whichever account they log into is the one that gets connected, and everything syncs against that account’s ID from then on. Students with more than one email address often have more than one Common App account, and signing in with the “other” email connects the wrong one. To check: compare the Common App ID shown in Scoir against the CAID the student sees when logged into the Common App account they actually use.
  2. If the CAIDs don’t match, contact Scoir support to disconnect the wrong account. This is a support action — students and schools cannot disconnect a wrong account themselves (and archiving a student is not a workaround; it severs their school connection entirely). Include both CAIDs and the email address on the correct account so it can be resolved in one touch.
  3. If the CAID matches but the status is still wrong, contact Scoir support with the student’s name, their Common App ID, and a screenshot of the completed FERPA section in Common App.

☝️ Because the connection is keyed to the account ID, changing an email address or name after linking does not break the sync — if those details differ between systems, that’s a clue the student may have signed in to a different account at linking time, not a problem to fix by editing profile details. One post-link change that DOES cause problems: changing your high school in Common App. Your high school selection is what connects your Common App to your school’s Scoir integration; changing or removing it after linking can prevent or disrupt your counselor’s form and recommendation submissions. The fix is self-service: in Common App, go to My Common Application → Education → Current or Most Recent Secondary/High School and re-select your correct school — the connection heals once the right school is back in place.

☝️ Counselors cannot reset or edit the Common App FERPA status from Scoir — the pencil-icon reset in Part 1 applies to the Scoir FERPA only.

Can the Common App FERPA be changed?

In Common App, yes — up to a point. Students can update their CA FERPA decision in Common App at any time until any recommender or counselor submits a form, or the student submits their first application. After either of those happens, the decision is locked — that’s Common App’s rule, not Scoir’s. Changes made before the lock sync to Scoir like any other status update.

Why this matters when it’s wrong

An incorrect Common App FERPA status in Scoir blocks downstream actions: counselors can’t send supporting documents, students can’t assign recommenders, and submitted applications may not move to “Applied.” If you’re blocked on any of those and the student insists they signed, this mismatch is the first thing to check.

How did we do?

Troubleshooting Common App Account Linking

What Syncs Between Common App & Scoir

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