Had anyone done FOIA request with FERPA to get emails?

[Anonymous]

I am in the process of gathering information related to an inappropriate restraint that happened to my child. I submitted a FERPA request to the school which included a request for electronic communications related to my child.

The school has come back saying educational records don’t include emails and that I have to do a FOIA request for those. I feel like this is a stalling tactic for them to delete messages before I can get guidance on the FOIA process.

Has anyone done a FOIA request for emails about a child between school personnel?

[Anonymous]

At this point you should have a lawyer to talk to about these things.

[Anonymous]

I am trying to hire one. We no longer live in DC- think small southern town- and there are so few attorneys that do this work that there is a long wait for consultations.

[Anonymous]

I think emails about your child are confidential information and not subject to FOIA. Don't worry about them deleting emails, it's actually quite difficult to completely delete emails and I doubt they know how to do it without getting caught.

Have you met with the school to discuss the incident? Unless your child was injured, you might be better off just working cooperatively to prevent a repeat.

[Anonymous]

FCPS? FOIA YES !!

I asked for grades detail and noticed most of the students that failed classes in high school were SPED kids

[Anonymous]

you might have to pay

[Anonymous]

Just make a request in writing. It doesn’t have to be fancy. In Maryland it’s called PIA- public information act- and any request that can be construed as a pia request, even if those words are not used, must be honored. It may cost you and you may not be able to get every document you are looking for, but make the request.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS? FOIA YES !!

I asked for grades detail and noticed most of the students that failed classes in high school were SPED kids

Grade reports are different from emails.

[Anonymous]

Send them a letter telling them not to destroy any of the emails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Send them a letter telling them not to destroy any of the emails.

Depending on how far back, they might already be destroyed. Our system used to only keep them 30 days. I think they are now kept a year. Plus, teachers are now prohibited from auto-forwarding to a private email account to ensure a paper trail they can access.

[Anonymous]

The school is wrong. File a complaint with the state and let them do the investigating.

[Anonymous]

This is the district FERPA office telling me this process. I don’t trust them, but I am seeing some online references to emails not being special education records.

We are past the friendly point. My child was the one where the janitor sat on them. The school hasn’t followed through on the commitments they made to train staff and provide services. I am working to engage an attorney locally but it will be September/ October before we can meet.

[Anonymous]

I am a special educator, but not in your district. We were told by our district’s legal team that any communication that has identifiable student information (name, initials, student ID number, etc.) is open to subpoena, including text messages on personal phones (which would be a clear FERPA violation anyway). Your district is going to do everything they can to avoid giving you this info, so please take everything they tell you with a grain of salt. You need a lawyer! In the meantime, include a list of all “searchable terms” about your child in the letter you send telling the district not to destroy any communication about your child, including name, nickname, initials, student ID number, birthdate, and any other things you have heard staff call the child. Staff does communicate about students via email and, very likely, via text message on their private phones; this communication is usually out of necessity and to benefit the child (“did you finish Larla’s present levels?”, “FYI, our little friend is super tired today.”, “can you attend an IEP on 5/27 for 12345?”, etc.), but it exists. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a special educator, but not in your district. We were told by our district’s legal team that any communication that has identifiable student information (name, initials, student ID number, etc.) is open to subpoena, including text messages on personal phones (which would be a clear FERPA violation anyway). Your district is going to do everything they can to avoid giving you this info, so please take everything they tell you with a grain of salt. You need a lawyer! In the meantime, include a list of all “searchable terms” about your child in the letter you send telling the district not to destroy any communication about your child, including name, nickname, initials, student ID number, birthdate, and any other things you have heard staff call the child. Staff does communicate about students via email and, very likely, via text message on their private phones; this communication is usually out of necessity and to benefit the child (“did you finish Larla’s present levels?”, “FYI, our little friend is super tired today.”, “can you attend an IEP on 5/27 for 12345?”, etc.), but it exists. Good luck!

Out of curiosity: how is the personal cell phone info gathered? Would I as a teacher be required to turn over ALL of my cell phone text message records all though that would compromise confidential information on other children —both other students and my own child? Or would I have to print out and submit the relevant messages? I ask because every field trip, we are required to join a group text. I teach magnet so I only know about 100 of the 300+ students. If I saw a message like “Security has already spoken to our special friend.” I would not know who that was, but I might also have a text from my DC’s therapist or a text from the nurse with another student’s asthma action plan because it was left on campus accidentally.

If I’d have to turn over everything, I’d rather just get a second cheap dumb phone and use that strictly for school.

[Anonymous]

Why do you want them? Why not just focus your energy on your kid?