RICHMOND, Va. — Relatives of the student gunman who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus allowed the university to turn over his mental health records to a gubernatorial panel investigating the shootings, the panel’s chairman said yesterday.

Federal privacy laws governing health and student information had prevented the panel from reviewing Seung-Hui Cho’s records. Panel Chairman W. Gerald Massengill had said he would go to court if necessary to obtain them.

“This is not all the records that we will need,” Mr. Massengill told the Associated Press yesterday, “but this is certainly some that we felt a strong need to take a look at.”

University spokesman Larry Hincker said the family gave permission for the records release late last week. Mr. Massengill said they were delivered to the panel on Wednesday, but that he had not yet examined them. They will not be made public.

Virginia Tech officials had been in negotiations with the family since the panel met in Blacksburg in May, Mr. Hincker said. Panel members have expressed frustration at state and school officials, who have said they couldn’t turn over Cho’s medical, mental health or scholastic records because federal privacy laws protect people even after death.

Cho killed himself on April 16 shortly after a shooting rampage in which he killed two students at a Virginia Tech dormitory and 30 other students and staff inside a classroom building. It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

A judge in 2005 had referred Cho to Virginia Tech’s Cook Counseling Center, but it was not known if he received any counseling. Cho’s family authorized the release of records from the center.

“I think these records should show a number of things, but certainly some of the questions that we had as to any counseling, any encounters he had had with the mental health community,” Mr. Massengill said.

While pleased that the panel will not have to fight for the mental health records, Mr. Massengill said he still wants access to other medical and school records.

“I think it’s important that we learn as much about Cho as we can from his childhood on up,” Mr. Massengill said. “Any record or any interview or any process that will allow us to do that, we’re certainly interested in.”

“His high school years are of particular importance to us,” he said.

Classmates have said Cho, who moved to the U.S. from South Korea at a young age, was teased at affluent Westfield High School in Chantilly, apparently because of his shyness and odd, mumbling way of speaking. In a video diatribe Cho mailed to NBC News the day of the shootings, he ranted against rich “brats” with Mercedes-Benzes, gold necklaces, cognac and trust funds.

Mr. Massengill said the panel may have to meet several more times. Governor Kaine has asked that the panel finish its work before school starts again in the fall.