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

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.