The moment a child comes home with a report card or school record and says "Teacher, I think this was entered wrong," a parent's first thought is usually "Can we just ask to have it fixed now?" But a Korean school record is closed to correction, as a rule, once the school year ends and the record is finalized. That doesn't mean there's no path at all -- if there's objective supporting evidence, a correction can still go through a review by the school's Academic Achievement Management Committee. Here is exactly when the deadline falls, and what happens after it passes.

Once the school year ends, correction is banned in principle

A Korean school year runs from March 1 to the end of February the following year. Schools finalize the school record by the end of the school year, and after that point, correcting entries from a prior school year is prohibited in principle. Parents often ask, "We only noticed this years after graduation -- can it still be fixed?" and the honest answer leans toward no.

For 11th graders, first-semester grades close even earlier

Starting with the cohort that entered 10th grade in 2025, subject achievement records are written and finalized by semester, in line with the new high school credit system. First-semester grades are finalized separately by August 31 of that year -- much earlier than other entries -- so that window for correction closes sooner than most parents expect. If something looked off in a grade during summer break, the safer move is to confirm it with the homeroom teacher before the second semester starts.

When correction is still possible -- if there's supporting evidence

Even after the deadline, correction is possible when objective supporting evidence exists, or when an entire narrative entry was wrong due to the recording teacher's own error. Common examples include attendance paperwork (a doctor's note or absence report) that was submitted late and never reflected, or an award's date or competition name that was entered incorrectly compared with the original official document. A claim that "I remember it differently" isn't enough on its own -- the process only starts once there's documentation to back it up.

How the Academic Achievement Management Committee review works

Once a correction request is submitted with supporting evidence, the school's Academic Achievement Management Committee reviews the objectivity of the evidence, the reason for the correction, and the content of the change. Only after the review passes does the actual correction happen, logged in the school record correction register with a serial number, the date of correction, who it applies to, what was changed, and who approved it. Because this register is an official record the school keeps on file, a correction can't be handled with a verbal promise alone -- there's always a documented procedure and a paper trail.

Who to ask, and how the request actually starts

A correction request isn't something a parent or student files directly with the committee. It starts by notifying the homeroom teacher or the subject teacher of the error and submitting supporting evidence first. That teacher then writes up a statement of reasons and submits it to the school, which triggers the scheduling of the committee review. Even for someone who graduated long ago, the right contact is the administrative office (or records department) of the school they attended -- and if the school has since closed, the local Office of Education takes over that responsibility.

The exception that skips committee review -- personal and enrollment information

Not every correction needs a committee review. Corrections to personal information (student information) such as name, resident registration number, or address can be processed with supporting documents alone (such as a copy of the resident registration), without going through the committee. That means relatively clear-cut factual matters, like a school transfer, a legal name change, or an address update, follow a comparatively simple process.

"Excused absences" aren't something the register corrects

Absences that count as attendance to begin with (excused absences) -- such as quarantine for a contagious illness or a school-approved field trip -- are already recorded as attendance, so they were never something the correction register handles in the first place. The school's Academic Achievement Management Committee sets its own policy for how these are noted, so a question like "why does it show as an excused absence instead of just attendance?" isn't a correction request -- it's better addressed to the homeroom teacher as a question about how attendance itself is recorded.

What to check right now

If your child is in a grade covered by the new high-school credit system's completion standards, subject achievement is finalized every semester, so it matters to check each report card as soon as it's issued rather than waiting. How to actually obtain your child's school record, and the difference between the viewing copy and the submission copy, is covered separately in this site's guide to requesting and issuing school records -- reviewing the actual issued document is the most reliable way to judge whether something was entered incorrectly. Because correction is overwhelmingly easier before the deadline, the safest habit is checking as soon as results are posted, whether at midterms or after finals.

Steps to remember

① Remember that the school year's end (the following February) is the deadline for correction in principle. ② For 10th grade and up, confirm that first-semester subject grades close separately and earlier, by August 31. ③ If you find an error after the deadline, gather objective supporting evidence first. ④ Confirm that personal-information corrections skip committee review, while everything else goes through the Academic Achievement Management Committee and gets logged in the correction register. ⑤ The best approach is checking as soon as grades or school record entries are posted, well before any deadline.