Reply to Are emails between parents and teachers subject to FOIA?

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "Are emails between parents and teachers subject to FOIA?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]FOIA lawyer here, athough I'm less familiar with FERPA.

The federal Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552, applies only to the executive branch of the federal government, but many states have their own versions that would apply to public schools.

It's highly unlikely that emails from a parent to a teacher about a particular student would be released pursuant to the FOIA, unless the public interest in the email - the interest of the public to know what the government is up to as demonstrated by the message - is so great as to outweigh the privacy interest of the student and parent. That said, if the document can be sufficiently redacted so that the student, parent, and other individuals cannot be identified, the disclosure of redacted messages may be required.

Going back to my FOIA work now. . .

[/quote]

It’s not so much our emails would ever be released to the public but individuals can request them. Parents suing schools and districts have done this. Houston ISD was recently hit with a copyright violation suit by a company whose products they illegally distributed and emails were pulled by lawyers to corroborate the claim they knew it was illegal and did it anyway. Anything we send in our school email can be requested by anyone at any time and provided. [/quote]

FOIA lawyer here again. Anything can be requested, but that doesn't mean it will be provided in its entirety. Even if these emails were requested in litigation, there are a number of options other than a wholesale disclosure of the contents, e.g., opposition to the production on the basis of relevance, production of redacted documents, production under a protective order.

In short, don't let fear of your emails being shared in litigation or pursuant to the FOIA get in the way of honest, open communications with your child's teacher.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics