Local districts express alarm over ruling allowing access to student data

Area school officials expressed concern Friday about a federal judge’s order that allows plaintiffs in a lawsuit access to data derived from demographic and personal information of California public school students dating to 2008.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District notified parents Thursday about U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller’s order — issued in Sacramento this month — and about how they can request that their children’s information, including Social Security numbers, home addresses and behavior and disciplinary records, not be disclosed.

The Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Assn. and California Concerned Parents Assn. filed a joint lawsuit in 2012 alleging that the California Department of Education was failing to monitor and enforce the rights of children with special needs. The groups requested the records of all public school students for a statistical analysis to see if it will prove their claim.

Information in the Department of Education’s databases include demographics, course information and special-education evaluations.

No specific school districts are named in the lawsuit. But local parents and school officials cited the importance of protecting personal information.

“I’m personally astounded at the judge’s decision,” Newport-Mesa board member Martha Fluor said. “Yes, the information is only available to the court’s statistical analysis, but the rights of all children are being violated.”

Laguna Beach Unified School District Supt. Sherine Smith said in an email that she was “dismayed” by the ruling.

“We believe it is crucial to protect student data privacy,” Smith said. “This ruling is counterproductive and against the best interests of our students.”

As part of Mueller’s order, the parent groups must either return or destroy the data once a decision or settlement in the lawsuit is reached. The court retained an expert in cyber security and data breach to try to ensure that representatives of the parent groups – fewer than 10 people – who have access to students’ data will not leak it to the public, according to the California Concerned Parents Assn.

The information the groups say they hope to derive relates to students who identify as having a disability, whether they are in special or general education classes and services they may be using or are available to them.

The plaintiffs want to see, for example, whether African-American students identified as intellectually disabled were disproportionately in special day classes as opposed to general education classes, or whether children diagnosed with behavioral issues had a behavioral management plan in place, Christine English, vice president of California Concerned Parents, told USA Today.

“Thinking of the bigger picture of our case, it’s large pieces of data that are being looked at, not individual data,” English told the Daily Pilot on Friday. “We’re not asking to look at individual information, but the derivative, aggregated data.”

But Suzanne Guantlett, parent of a Corona del Mar High School student, still had doubts.

“If this information is released to this group, how can people be assured that it’s safeguarded?” she said. “This involves millions of students over an eight-year period and minors who don’t even have a voice in the matter.”

State Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in a statement this week that “we have fought vigorously to protect students’ privacy rights and will continue that fight.”

Parents, guardians and current and former students 18 and older can submit a form objecting to the release of their or their children’s records. It must be mailed by April 1 to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento.

“Our district PTA is taking action, asking parents to fill out the objection form if that’s what they’d like to do,” said Vanessa Hatch, president of the Newport-Mesa district’s Harbor Council PTA. “We understand parents do not want that information released.”

Newport-Mesa plans to call all district parents and guardians Monday to further inform them about the judge’s order and about the objection forms, Fluor said.

Laguna parent Kris Howson filled out the opt-out form because of the amount of information available to the Morgan Hill and Concerned Parent groups.

“At first I didn’t care about who sees my kid’s test results, but sharing personal info such as a Social Security number, [the plaintiffs] don’t need that stuff,” Howson said. “If my [child’s] info helps kids with disabilities get [classes] then I would do it, as long as it’s not sharing the Social Security number.”

For more information or to obtain an objection form, visit cde.ca.gov/morganhillcase.