SF9 Report Card Explained for Parents

TL;DR: SF9, formerly known as Form 138, is DepEd's official report card, prepared by the class adviser at the end of each grading period. It shows a numeric grade per learning area mapped to a descriptor, a general average, an attendance record, the teacher's comments and, at year-end, a promotion or retention decision. Three things changed for SY 2026-2027. DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026 repealed the old grading policy (DO 8, s. 2015) and replaced the Outstanding-to-Did-Not-Meet-Expectations descriptors with Advancing, Benchmarking, Connecting, Developing and Emerging. The same order dropped the old core-values conduct block, so values now appear as a graded learning area rather than an Always/Sometimes/Rarely Observed rating. And DepEd Order No. 009, s. 2026 moved public schools from four quarters to three terms, so report cards now come out three times a year. Replacing a lost SF9 is free at a public school: bring a signed letter request and a valid ID to the school that issued it.

Every parent has held an SF9 report card and skimmed straight to the numbers, but the form carries more than grades: attendance, the adviser's written comments, and — at the end of the year — whether your child moves up a grade level. This guide walks through each section so you know what you are actually looking at, reading from DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026, the current grading policy, and the SF9 templates annexed to it. For the companion document that follows a student across their entire school history rather than one grading period, see our Form 137/SF10 guide.

What Is the SF9 Report Card?

SF9 is the document your child's class adviser prepares at the end of each grading period to summarize the learner's progress. It's the direct successor to the old Form 138 — same purpose, new official name, as part of DepEd's broader standardization of school forms (SF1 through SF10) across all public and most private schools. DO 015, s. 2026 gives it two names by key stage: the Learner's Progress Report (SF9) for Kindergarten to Grade 3, where reporting is descriptive, and the Learner's Performance Report (SF9) for Grades 4 to 12, where it carries term grades and final ratings. "SF9" and "Form 138" both still work in conversation.

Unlike Form 137/SF10, which is a cumulative record that mostly stays with the school, SF9 is handed directly to parents or guardians every grading period, and it's meant to be kept at home as your family's own copy of your child's academic history.

SF9 vs. Form 138 vs. Form 137/SF10: What's the Difference?

If you're checking how your child did this quarter or term, you want the SF9 in your hand right now. If a new school is asking for your child's complete academic history for a transfer, that's the separate Form 137/SF10 request process, not the SF9.

How Do You Read the Grades on SF9?

Each learning area on the SF9 shows a numeric final grade for the period, reported as a whole number. The words printed beside those numbers changed this school year. Through SY 2025-2026, DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015 set five descriptors:

DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026, signed June 4, 2026, "repeals DepEd Order (DO) No. 8, s. 2015" and replaces that scale from SY 2026-2027 onward. The new descriptors carry Filipino equivalents and are meant to describe what a learner can do rather than rank the learner:

Note the bands are not the old bands renamed. The old system had a single "Very Satisfactory" band of 85-89 and "Satisfactory" at 80-84; the new one merges 80-89 into one Benchmarking band, and it extends the reported scale below 75 into two named tiers instead of one blanket "Did Not Meet Expectations."

Seventy-five remains the minimum passing grade. DO 015, s. 2026 puts it plainly: a Final Grade "of 75 or higher indicates that the learner has met the minimum standards," and anything below that triggers remedial intervention or academic support. Each subject's grade is computed from weighted assessment components — named under the new order as Written/Oral Works (WWs), Product/Performance Tasks (PTs) and Examinations (EXs) — with the exact weights and the transmutation question covered in our companion guides on the DepEd grading system, the grade transmutation table, and what DO 015, s. 2026 actually changes.

One transitional wrinkle affects the oldest cohort. DO 015 keeps the old DO 8, s. 2015 component weights in force for SHS Grade 12 for SY 2026-2027, because that year group has not yet moved onto the Strengthened SHS Curriculum, applying them together with the adjusted transmutation table used across the rest of the system that year. A Grade 12 report card in 2026-2027 therefore carries the new descriptors over subject weights inherited from the repealed order.

One more change affects the youngest learners: for Key Stage 1, DO 015 moves reporting away from numbers entirely. From SY 2026-2027 Grade 1 uses descriptive reporting, SY 2027-2028 adds Grade 2, and SY 2028-2029 adds Grade 3. Their SF9 shows narrative statements of what the child can already do and what they are still learning, rather than a grade per subject.

At the bottom of the grades section, the SF9 shows a General Average, which DO 015 computes by averaging the Final Grades in all learning areas taken through the school year, again as a whole number. Senior high school is the exception: for Key Stage 4 the General Average is computed using the equivalent units of each subject, with the detail left to a separate issuance on the Strengthened SHS Curriculum.

Disclaimer: grading components, weights, and terminology continue to be refined under DepEd's MATATAG curriculum rollout. Confirm the current computation with your child's class adviser or school if anything on the SF9 looks unfamiliar.

Where Did the "Observed Values" Section Go?

If you are looking for the conduct block — the one that rated your child against Maka-Diyos, Makatao, Makakalikasan and Makabansa as AO (Always Observed), SO (Sometimes Observed), RO (Rarely Observed) or NO (Not Observed) — it is not on the new report card.

That block came from DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015, whose Table 13 set the marking for the observed values and whose Table 12 listed the behaviour statements and indicators behind each core value. DO 015, s. 2026 repealed DO 8, and the SF9 templates annexed to DO 015 do not reproduce it. The Grade 4 to 12 Learner's Performance Report has a learning-areas table, a general average, a performance-descriptor key, an attendance record, teacher's comments per term, parent signature lines, and the transfer blocks. There is no observed-values grid.

Values did not disappear from the report card; they moved. GMRC / Values Education sits in the learning-areas list alongside Filipino, English, Mathematics and the rest, and carries a numeric grade like any other subject. The parent letter printed on the template still says the report shows progress "in the different learning areas as well as his/her core values," which is now a description of that graded subject rather than of a separate conduct rating.

For Kindergarten to Grade 3, DO 015 handles character differently again, through a Character Traits Award granted at the end of each academic term based on the descriptive grading, aligned to the DepEd core values. Teachers may contextualise the titles of these awards to their learners and community, and recognition is capped at five core awards.

If a grade in GMRC or Values Education surprises you, the conversation to have is the same one the old conduct mark used to prompt: ask the adviser what evidence it rests on.

What Does the Attendance Section Show?

The attendance record on SF9 runs across the top of the form: a row of months, with the number of class days, days present and days absent under each, and a total column at the end. DO 015 makes this part of the record rather than a courtesy — the Progress and Performance Reports "shall be issued at the end of each term and shall include data on learners' attendance during class days within the term as an integral part of the report."

The order also sets a trigger worth knowing. Teachers are directed to monitor attendance and intervene with parents or guardians particularly by the end of Term 1, or when a learner reaches approximately twelve absences. Where absences are unavoidable, the school is to provide remediation and learning support, and learners with prolonged or recurring absences may be endorsed to the Flexible Learning Program or other interventions. So if you are reading a term's absences alongside a slipping grade, you are doing what the policy expects the school to be doing too.

What Do Promotion and Retention Markings Mean?

At the end of the school year, the SF9 (or an accompanying summary form) records whether a learner is promoted to the next grade level. DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026 rewrote these rules for Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 (and for Grades 2 and 3 while they are still on numeric grading), and the sequence now has more steps than the old pass-or-repeat split:

• Passed all learning areas — the learner is promoted.
• Failed at most two learning areas — the learner takes Summer Remedial Class. Assessments given during remedial produce a Remedial Class Mark (RCM), which is averaged with the Final Grade to give a Recomputed Final Grade (RFG). An RFG of 75 or higher clears the subject and qualifies the learner for promotion.
• Still failing one or two learning areas after remedial — the learner is conditionally promoted. They move up and enrol in the higher-level subjects they already passed, while clearing the deficiencies as back subjects through School-Initiated Intervention, at a limit of one back subject per term.
• Failed more than two learning areas — the learner is retained in the same grade level.

Senior high school has one extra constraint: failing a prerequisite subject blocks enrolment in the higher-level subject until the learner earns a passing RFG or clears it as a back subject.

The order also pushes remediation earlier so fewer learners reach year-end in trouble: teachers are directed to begin remedial intervention "as early as Week 5 following the first ST" — the first summative test — using classroom-based strategies or programmes such as ARAL. For Key Stage 1, promotion is explicitly "developmentally appropriate and non-punitive," and DO 015 states that learners "shall not be retained solely based on age, a single assessment result, or academic performance."

On the form itself, the decision is written in the Remarks column beside each learning area's Final Grade, read against the performance-descriptor key printed at the bottom of the template: Advancing, Benchmarking and Connecting are marked Passed, Developing and Emerging are marked Failed. The Adviser and the School Head both sign the Certificate of Transfer block that carries the year-end decision.

When Is SF9 Released Each Year?

Release timing follows DepEd's school calendar, which changed for public schools starting this school year. Through SY 2025-2026, public schools ran a four-quarter calendar, so SF9 came out roughly four times per school year, at the end of each quarter. Starting SY 2026-2027, DepEd Order No. 009, s. 2026 restructured the calendar into three terms, each ending in a dedicated end-of-term assessment block — so SF9 is now issued three times a year for public schools following the new calendar, once after each term's end-of-term block.

Private schools aren't required to follow DepEd's three-term calendar, so some may continue issuing SF9 on a quarterly, trimester, or semester schedule depending on their own approved school calendar. Check your specific school's calendar rather than assuming it matches the public-school schedule — see our Philippine school holidays guide for how the two systems currently differ.

What Is Form 138 Actually Used For?

Parents tend to treat the report card as an information sheet for the family. It is also a working document that other institutions ask for by name, and it does four jobs:

1. It gets your child enrolled somewhere else. Receiving schools ask for the most recent SF9 at enrolment as evidence of the last completed grading period, because the full Form 137/SF10 moves separately, school to school, and usually arrives later. The report card itself carries the transfer machinery: the DepEd templates print a Certificate of Transfer block ("Eligible for Admission to Grade ___", signed by the adviser and school head) and a matching Cancellation of Eligibility to Transfer block that the receiving school fills in once the learner is admitted.

2. It is the family's own copy of the academic history. Unlike SF10, nobody keeps a spare for you. If you throw out each quarter's report card, the only remaining copy of that data lives in the school's class records and, in summary form, on the permanent record.

3. It can stand in for the permanent record. DepEd's reconstructed-diploma service, permitted for authentication purposes under DepEd Order No. 48, s. 2017, requires a sworn statement from two former classmates, principals, or teachers, supported by graduation photos or a souvenir programme, plus a "duly certified copy of Form 137 or Form 138 of the learner on file in any Tertiary Learning Institutions." An old report card is accepted proof there.

4. It now carries attendance as part of the record, not as a courtesy. DO 015, s. 2026 states that the Learner's Progress Report and Performance Report "shall be issued at the end of each term and shall include data on learners' attendance during class days within the term as an integral part of the report."

How Do You Replace a Lost SF9 or Form 138?

Go back to the school that issued it — not the Schools Division Office, and not DepEd central. The DepEd Citizen's Charter (2026 Edition) lists this as a school-level service with a published standard.

What to bring:

• A letter request signed by the parent or guardian stating the request for the learner's SF9 — one original and one photocopy
• Any government-issued valid ID — one original and one photocopy
• If someone else is collecting it: an authorization letter (one original) plus a photocopy of the requester's ID and a photocopy of the authorized person's ID

What the school does: receives and checks the requirements, verifies the details against the class adviser's records, prepares the SF9, routes it to the class adviser for signature and then to the school head, notifies you, releases it, and logs the release in the school logbook with your signature.

What it costs and how long: the charter lists the fee as None and the total agency processing time as 59 minutes. Treat that as desk time rather than a same-hour promise — schools notify you when the document is ready, and the adviser whose signature is needed is usually teaching.

If the school can no longer produce the report card — old records, a long-closed class, a fire or flood — ask instead for certified learner's academic records, the charter service used for local employment. There the registrar searches for "SF9 or SF10 whichever is available" and issues a certified copy signed by the school head, again with no fee, at a published 3 hours and 59 minutes of processing. That is the honest fallback: DepEd does not reissue a historical report card it no longer has, but it will certify whatever record survived.

If the school itself has closed, the trail moves to the Schools Division Office, which holds archived records — the same escalation described in our Form 137/SF10 guide.

What Should Parents Do With the SF9?

• Check grades and attendance together, not in isolation — a slipping grade alongside rising absences usually points to the same underlying issue.
• Raise disputed grades immediately, with the subject teacher or class adviser, while the grading period's records are still fresh; don't wait until the next report card to ask questions.
• Read the teacher's comments, not just the grid. The new template gives the adviser a written remarks box for every term, and that is where anything the numbers do not show tends to appear.
• Keep every SF9 you receive. Schools may ask for prior report cards during enrollment, and they're useful if you ever need to reconstruct a record for a transfer.
• Don't panic over a single low grading-period grade. Under DO 015, s. 2026 the promotion decision runs off the Final Grade in each learning area, which is the average of the term grades — not one term on its own — and a failed learning area goes to Summer Remedial Class before it becomes a retention.

Ready to find the right school? Browse schools or compare tuition and reviews across hundreds of Philippine schools on SchoolFinderPH.

Sources

• DepEd Order No. 015, s. 2026 — Revised Guidelines on Classroom Assessment, Grading System, and Awards and Recognition (official PDF)
• DepEd Citizen's Charter, 2026 Edition — issuance of SF9 and certified learner's academic records, with fees and processing times (official PDF)
• DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2015 — Policy Guidelines on Classroom Assessment for the K to 12 Basic Education Program, repealed; Tables 10, 12 and 13 (official PDF)
• SchoolFinderPH — DepEd School Calendar 2026-2027
• SchoolFinderPH — Form 137 (SF10): What It Is and How to Request It