Form 137 vs Form 138: The Difference

TL;DR: Form 137, now School Form 10 (SF10), is the permanent academic record. It is cumulative, it stays with the school, and it moves school-to-school when a learner transfers. Form 138, now School Form 9 (SF9), is the report card. It covers one school year, it is handed to the parent each grading period, and it includes attendance and conduct that the permanent record does not carry. When someone asks for "your records," the practical question is whether they want proof of what you completed across all your schooling — Form 137 — or evidence of how you performed this year — Form 138.

Two documents, two numbers one digit apart, and a naming change that DepEd made years ago but which never fully took. That is enough to send a steady stream of parents back to a registrar's window for a second trip.

Here is the distinction in one line: Form 137 is the record the school keeps about you. Form 138 is the report the school gives to you. Everything else follows from that.

The Core Difference

Why the Names Changed, and Why Nobody Uses the New Ones

DepEd standardised its school forms into a numbered SF1 to SF10 series so that a learner's file would stop being a stack of school-customised sheets. The permanent record became SF10 and the report card became SF9. Under DepEd's guidelines, SF10 and SF9 are manually updated and must be consistent with SF5 and the other forms — the point of the system is that the forms check against each other.

In practice, both names survive. Registrars say Form 137. Parents say report card. College checklists print "SF9 (Report Card)" and "SF10 (Permanent Record)" side by side precisely because nobody can rely on one vocabulary. If you are ever unsure which is being asked for, describe the document rather than naming it: "the cumulative record with all my grade levels" or "the card you gave me at the end of the quarter."

For the full numbered set and what each form does, see our DepEd school forms guide.

What Each One Actually Contains

Form 137 / SF10 opens with a personal information block — name as it appears on the PSA birth certificate, Learner Reference Number, birthdate, sex — followed by the credential that made the learner eligible to enrol. Then comes a stack of grade-level tables, one per school year, each carrying the school name and six-digit school ID, district, division, region, every learning area, quarterly ratings, a final rating per subject, and a general average. A remedial block records any recomputed grades. A certification block, signed by the school head in ink and stamped with the school dry seal, closes it. Our section-by-section walkthrough covers each field.

Form 138 / SF9 is built for a different reader. It shows the grade in every learning area for the grading period and the year, an attendance summary, a conduct rating against DepEd's core values, and, at year-end, whether the learner is promoted or retained. Our SF9 guide reads it line by line.

The overlap is grades. The difference is everything around them: the permanent record adds institutional history — which school, which division, which years — and drops the attendance and conduct reporting that makes the report card useful to a parent mid-year.

The one place DepEd treats them as interchangeable

Both are official records, and in at least one documented situation DepEd accepts either. Under the department's reconstructed-diploma service — allowed only for authentication purposes under DepEd Order No. 48, s. 2017 — a learner whose diploma is lost must submit a sworn statement from two former classmates, principals, or teachers, plus a "duly certified copy of Form 137 or Form 138 of the learner on file in any Tertiary Learning Institutions; transcript of records on file in the learner's current / previous employer/s."

So the report card sitting in a drawer at home can stand in for the permanent record when the permanent record cannot be produced. That is the exception, though, not the rule. Everywhere else in this guide, the two documents are asked for by name and one will not pass for the other.

Which One Do You Actually Need?

This is the question behind almost every search that lands on this topic.

Transferring to another basic education school. You need the permanent record moved, and you do not move it yourself. Under DepEd Order No. 54, s. 2016 — an order addressed to public elementary and secondary school heads — the receiving school enrols the learner in the Learner Information System, which notifies the previous school, and that school's registrar sends the SF10 directly. The same order states that learners and their parents or guardian are not allowed to hand-carry the Permanent Record to the receiving school.

Private schools sit under a different instrument, the 2010 Revised Manual of Regulations for Private Schools in Basic Education, issued as DepEd Order No. 88, s. 2010. Section 127 makes the report card itself part of the transfer paperwork: at the elementary and secondary levels the credential handed to the pupil is the uncancelled Form 138 together with a certificate of eligibility to transfer signed by the school head, issued within two weeks after the application or the close of the school year. The permanent record still moves school to school — Section 141 makes forwarding it the duty of the school last attended once that certificate has gone out.

Either way, bring the report card to the new school — it helps with placement while the SF10 is in transit — but it is not a substitute. The full sequence is in our guide to transferring schools.

Applying to college. Expect to be asked for both, at different points. Application and entrance exam requirements commonly call for the report card covering recent grade levels, because that is the document a student physically has. The permanent record generally comes later, as a certified true copy, for enrolment and credit evaluation. Some universities specify exactly this split in their published requirements, so read the checklist rather than guessing — ours is at college admission requirements.

Employment, visas, or proving you finished school. This is Form 137 territory. An employer or a visa processor asking for documentary proof that you completed a stated level of schooling wants the cumulative record, issued as a certified true copy bearing the school seal and the school head's signature in ink. A report card from one year does not prove completion of a level.

Checking on your child's progress mid-year. Form 138, every time. The permanent record is not updated for parents to read; it is updated at the end of the school year or when a learner transfers.

Looking up what your child got in every subject last school year. Either will do, and the report card is the faster route because you already have it. The permanent record carries the same final ratings, but getting at them means filing a request with the registrar for a document you are not otherwise entitled to hold.

What Happens When You Lose One

Losing a report card and losing a permanent record are not the same problem.

The report card is a copy issued to you. The grades behind it live in the school's records, and the school can certify or reissue them. Ask the class adviser or registrar.

The permanent record is the school's master document, and you were never holding the original in the first place. To get a copy, go to the last school you attended, or the nearest Schools Division Office if that school has closed, with a valid government-issued ID and your LRN or, failing that, the school name and years of attendance. If someone is requesting on your behalf, schools generally want a notarised authorisation letter or a Special Power of Attorney.

Can Either One Be Withheld Over an Unpaid Balance?

This is where the two forms converge, and where the rules are worth reading exactly.

The two kinds of school answer to different rules, and most write-ups on this topic flatten that.

For private schools, DepEd Order No. 88, s. 2010 (the 2010 Revised Manual of Regulations for Private Schools in Basic Education), Section 128, allows release of transfer credentials to be withheld for suspension, expulsion, or nonpayment of financial obligations or property responsibility of the pupil or student to the school — and requires release once the obligation is settled.

Three limits sit on top of that:

• The obligation has to be the student's own, not a sibling's or a general school-wide charge. Section 128 speaks of obligations "of the pupil or student to the school."
• The leverage ends at the certificate of eligibility to transfer. Section 141 of the same Manual says that once that certificate has been issued and the receiving school requests the file, the private school last attended must forward the credentials promptly, regardless of whether it is later found that the student still has monetary or property obligations to it. A balance is a reason to hold back the certificate, not a reason to sit on the record afterwards.
• Republic Act No. 11984, the No Permit, No Exam Prohibition Act signed March 11, 2024, requires schools to let a Disadvantaged Student certified by a social welfare office sit periodic and final exams regardless of balance, and for K to 12 students that runs for the entire school year. It does not stop a school from withholding records — the law expressly preserves the school's ability to require a promissory note, withhold records and credentials, and pursue other legal and administrative remedies.

For public schools, there is no tuition to owe, and the rule people reach for is DepEd Order No. 41, s. 2012. Be precise about what that order is: it is titled Revised Guidelines on the Opening of Classes, it is addressed to heads of public elementary and secondary schools, and the relevant line is item 2.h, which says nonpayment of voluntary school contributions or membership fees shall in no case be made a basis for non-admission, non-promotion or non-issuance of clearance. It is not a records rule and it does not reach private schools. What connects it to these two forms is DepEd Order No. 54, s. 2016, which reiterates that sentence "in relation to the release and issuance of Forms 138 and 137."

The practical move in either case is to ask for a written statement of account, confirm the charge is a legitimate authorised fee rather than a voluntary contribution, and put any refusal in writing before escalating to the Schools Division Office. The full picture — the thirty-day clock in Batas Pambansa Blg. 232, the rule that applies once you reach college, and how to escalate through the Schools Division Office — is in When a School Withholds Your Records.

Quick Answers to the Follow-Up Questions

• "Is Form 137 the same as a transcript of records?" No. A Transcript of Records is the college-level equivalent, issued by a university registrar under CHED's framework. Form 137 is basic education, under DepEd.
• "My school gave me a photocopy — is that valid?" For purposes other than enrolling at the next level, the school issues a certified true copy carrying the school seal and the school head's signature in ink. A plain photocopy with neither is not a document.
• "Do I need Form 137 for senior high school enrolment?" The record follows the learner from junior high to senior high through the same request-and-transfer process. You do not carry it yourself.
• "Which one has my LRN?" Both carry it, but the permanent record is where a registrar will look to confirm it.

Disclaimer: DepEd revises its school forms and release rules through new orders and memoranda, and individual schools set their own certified-copy fees. Confirm current requirements with your school's registrar or the nearest DepEd Schools Division Office.

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Sources

• DepEd Order No. 54, s. 2016 — Guidelines on the Request and Transfer of Learner's School Records (official PDF)
• DepEd Order No. 41, s. 2012 — Revised Guidelines on the Opening of Classes, item 2.h (official PDF)
• DepEd — DO 88, s. 2010, 2010 Revised Manual of Regulations for Private Schools in Basic Education, Sections 127, 128 and 141
• Republic Act No. 11984 — No Permit, No Exam Prohibition Act, Sections 4 and 6 (LawPhil)
• DepEd Order No. 11, s. 2018 — Guidelines on the Preparation and Checking of School Forms, naming SF10 and SF9 as the former Forms 137 and 138 (official PDF)
• TeacherPH — 2019 DepEd Guidelines in the Preparation of School Form 10 for Elementary (SF10-ES)
• TeacherPH — 2019 DepEd Guidelines in the Preparation of School Form 10 for Junior High School (SF10-JHS)
• DepEd Citizen's Charter, 2026 Edition — reconstructed diploma service and its Form 137/Form 138 requirement (official PDF)
• SchoolFinderPH — Form 137 (SF10): What It Is and How to Request It