Legal Question Of The Week - 2/14/13
By Attorney Thomas B. Mooney, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut
The "Legal Question of the Week" is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues. We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors. Please submit your questions to:legalmailbag@casciac.org .
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Dear Legal Mailbag:
We recently had a drug possession arrest in the middle school. We called the police, the children involved were arrested, and we imposed school discipline. Some parents are now asking why I haven’t communicated anything at all to the community as a whole, and they are demanding more information. I have been reluctant to share anything, as the issue is not one of school safety or security and does not directly involve the children of the inquiring parents. When I communicated this response to these parents, some were not satisfied. They felt that a drug deal is a matter of school safety (and to some extent, I agree), and they claimed that they are entitled to know about it. I know that I need to maintain the confidentiality of the students involved. However, I also want to be responsive (generally) to the parent community who feel that by not sharing out information of this nature, I am brushing it under the rug. What can (or should) I communicate?
Signed,
Communication Challenge
Dear Challenge:
Your question illustrates two truisms. First, you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Second, not everything is a legal issue. Here, the only legal issue is to assure that you do not reveal personally-identifiable student information in violation of FERPA. Moreover, FERPA is clear that you cannot reveal otherwise public information in response to “targeted requests,” i.e. requests for information that would otherwise not be personally-identifiable to people who you know are aware of other information that makes the information identifiable. That said, it is permissible for you to provide limited information to the parent community on student issues that you think are important for them to know. For example, if a student is arrested for gun possession in school, school administrators often send a letter home that explains the circumstances in general terms and assures parents that the school is safe. Done carefully, such a letter does not provide parents with any personally-identifiable information.
Whether and when to communicate about student discipline relating to drug possession or sales is entirely a matter for your sound judgment, as long as you keep the information general. I will say, however, that it is not typical for schools to notify parents about such things. Of course, there are always exceptions, such as when a school determines that there is a significant drug problem at a particular school necessitating special measures. But generally such matters are not the subject of school/parent communications. While these particular parents would have preferred communication on this issue, who knows how many other parents will be upset by the news, should you decide to send out a general notification? Personally, I would stay the course and not notify the parent community about such student discipline. But I must defer to your judgment because you know your school and parents better.
The "Legal Question of the Week" is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues. We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors. Please submit your questions to:
_____________________________________________________________________________
Dear Legal Mailbag:
We recently had a drug possession arrest in the middle school. We called the police, the children involved were arrested, and we imposed school discipline. Some parents are now asking why I haven’t communicated anything at all to the community as a whole, and they are demanding more information. I have been reluctant to share anything, as the issue is not one of school safety or security and does not directly involve the children of the inquiring parents. When I communicated this response to these parents, some were not satisfied. They felt that a drug deal is a matter of school safety (and to some extent, I agree), and they claimed that they are entitled to know about it. I know that I need to maintain the confidentiality of the students involved. However, I also want to be responsive (generally) to the parent community who feel that by not sharing out information of this nature, I am brushing it under the rug. What can (or should) I communicate?
Signed,
Communication Challenge
Dear Challenge:
Your question illustrates two truisms. First, you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Second, not everything is a legal issue. Here, the only legal issue is to assure that you do not reveal personally-identifiable student information in violation of FERPA. Moreover, FERPA is clear that you cannot reveal otherwise public information in response to “targeted requests,” i.e. requests for information that would otherwise not be personally-identifiable to people who you know are aware of other information that makes the information identifiable. That said, it is permissible for you to provide limited information to the parent community on student issues that you think are important for them to know. For example, if a student is arrested for gun possession in school, school administrators often send a letter home that explains the circumstances in general terms and assures parents that the school is safe. Done carefully, such a letter does not provide parents with any personally-identifiable information.
Whether and when to communicate about student discipline relating to drug possession or sales is entirely a matter for your sound judgment, as long as you keep the information general. I will say, however, that it is not typical for schools to notify parents about such things. Of course, there are always exceptions, such as when a school determines that there is a significant drug problem at a particular school necessitating special measures. But generally such matters are not the subject of school/parent communications. While these particular parents would have preferred communication on this issue, who knows how many other parents will be upset by the news, should you decide to send out a general notification? Personally, I would stay the course and not notify the parent community about such student discipline. But I must defer to your judgment because you know your school and parents better.