Confidentiality of Student Records - UCPS - Exceptional Children ...

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2. EC student’s records are sent from the school to the Exceptional Children’s Office when a student graduates from high school. The parents of graduating seniors are notified that they may request a copy of the entire file from Central Services. D. PARENT AND STUDENT ACCESS TO RECORDS 1. Each parent of a dependent child shall have access to the child’s records. “Parent” means either the natural parent, the legal guardian, or the person acting as a parent in the absence of the natural parent. 2. Upon reaching age eighteen, students or former students assume their rights regarding records and placement. 3. When a parent or legal guardian is providing more than half of the support of the pupil who is at least eighteen years old, the parent may retain access to the pupil’s records without the pupil’s consent. However, the parent does not exercise any other rights regarding the records. 4. In some cases the parents will pursue a Court hearing to have the student declared incompetent at age eighteen. After being presented a copy of such a Court document, the school will give the parents full rights to the student’s records and placement. 5. At any time a parent or adult student requests access to the Exceptional Children’s folder, qualified school personnel shall be present to interpret the record. 6. Access to a record shall be granted within a reasonable amount of time not to exceed fortyfive (45) days. However, the goal of the Union County Exceptional Children’s Program is that access, with a interpretive conference, should be provided within fifteen (15) working days. The school psychologist should be present to interpret evaluation data. If the student has not had a psychological evaluation, such as with a child placed as speech impaired, the speech/language specialist or other specialist should be present for the interpretive. 7. After interpretation, parents shall have the right to request copies of the records or portions of the records. (Protocols of restricted tests, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, are not placed in the student’s record and may not be copied for distribution to the parent.) 8. There is no charge for copy of records being sent to a parent or to another school unit. E. PARENT REQUEST TO AMEND RECORDS 1. Each parent and eligible student has the right to inspect, disagree with, and request that information be amended or deleted. This would be based upon the belief that the information is inaccurate, misleading or otherwise in violation of the privacy, rights of the pupil or parent. The parent and eligible student also have the right to request that additional information be added to the student records. 2. The parent should place in writing the request to amend the student’s records. The parent should sign the statement which explains the nature of the objection of the questioned record. 3. The Exceptional Children’s Department Chairperson and other appropriate staff members should meet informally with the parent in an effort to resolve the dispute over the challenged contents of the records. 4. The meeting can result in the decision for information to be amended, deleted, added, or for an independent evaluation to be provided. 5. If no resolution can be reached, the issue should be referred to the district level. If a resolution cannot be reached after attempts at the district level, mediation or a hearing can be requested by either parent or the school system.
F. EMPLOYEE AND THIRD PARTY ACCESS TO RECORDS 1. Prior parental consent is NOT required for these uses: a. School unit employees Personnel who have direct evaluation and instructional responsibilities for the student have access to the student records. This includes teacher assistants and student teachers. The access by clerical staff is limited to information which is necessary for the performance of their job responsibilities. b. Court Order or Subpoena Student record information shall be released in compliance with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena, upon condition that a reasonable effort is made to notify the parent in advance of such compliance. Advance notice is required to give a parent the opportunity to exercise the right of attempting to quash a subpoena in the manner provided by law. If advance notice is not possible, the information shall be released to comply with the subpoena and a written notice or phone call shall be sent to the parent simultaneously. Whenever such orders and/or subpoenas are received, a copy should be forwarded to the General Counsel for assistance in compliance. c. Representatives from the Department of Education or Representative from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Information from student records shall be made available in connection with the audit and evaluation of Exceptional Children’s Programs. d. Other School Units to Which the Student is Transferring The student’s Exceptional Children’s folder from the school shall be sent to the new school. The sending school shall retain a record of the address of the new school to which the records were sent and the date on which the records were sent. The school retains information on the student’s name, date of birth, and the parent/guardian’s last known address. The duplicate yellow copy folder of the student’s records will be retained for a period of three years in the Central Office Exceptional Children’s files. e. Telephone Requests From Receiving School Telephone requests for information from student records shall not be honored unless the identity of the caller is known and the caller is authorized to receive the information under provisions of this procedure. In the case of an unknown caller from the receiving school, an attempt should be made to confirm the identity of the caller. This consists of accepting the request, confirming the telephone number of the caller through another source (such as phone directory), and in returning the call by dialing the confirmed number. f. Health and Safety Emergencies Student record information shall be disclosed to appropriate persons and agencies in connection with an emergency to protect the health or safety of the student or other persons. This included cooperating with the Department of Social Services in reported cases of suspected child abuse or neglect. 2. Prior parental, written consent IS REQUIRED except as stated above. 3. Information in student records can be sent to other agencies, organizations, and other persons at the written request of the parent, guardian, or adultage student. The consent must be in writing, specify the records to be disclosed, state the purpose of the disclosure, identify to whom the disclosure may be made and be signed and dated by the parent, guardian or eligible student. 4. The local “Consent for Release for Information” form is to be used. A copy of this form and the date of the transfer of records is retained in the student’s Exceptional Children’s Record. G. RECORD OF REVIEW OF INFORMATION 1. When information from a student’s record is reviewed by any person or organization other than personnel of the school district, a record of such request and review shall be maintained as part of the student’s Exceptional Children’s folder. 2. The Student Record Inspection Sheet is used for this purpose. This written log must be filled out in entirety specifying the reason for the access, the items inspected, the date, and the signature of the person gaining access to the record. An example of the use of this sheet is with a state Monitoring Team member who is auditing records. Another example is when a suspected abuse report has been filed and the Department of Social Services caseworker has a need to review records.
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