Judge backtracks on release of California student records - San Jose Mercury News:
Judge backtracks on release of California student records
Responding to overwhelming public protest, a federal judge has decided records of 10 million California students won't be released to attorneys in a special-education lawsuit.
Instead, Judge Kimberly Mueller ruled that the huge database will remain solely with the California Department of Education, which must respond to queries from attorneys seeking evidence that the state has failed to ensure an adequate education for special-needs children.
Previously, the judge had indicated that the attorneys could get a copy of the state's huge database on students and teachers, including names, addresses, disciplinary records, grades, test scores, jobs and in some cases Social Security numbers.
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The court, following federal privacy rules, also had offered parents the option to protest -- but not necessarily prevent -- the release of their children's data.
After news of the pending data release spread, the court has been so inundated with objection forms that it can't even read them. Mueller this week ordered the forms archived in sealed boxes.
In her order, Mueller wrote that she "construes the objections as reinforcing the need for the protection of personal identifying information in the CDE's educational records" and the need to modify her protocol for releasing data.
Her latest order covers only the comprehensive student and teacher California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System, the largest of seven sets of records sought by the plaintiffs. Mueller's protocol calls for releasing other records, including standardized STAR tests, emails, parent complaints and special-education documentation, to attorneys.
The suit was originally filed by parents in the Morgan Hill Unified School District. They since have been joined by parents from throughout the state.
Last year, she appointed a special master, attorney Winston Krone, to oversee the data release.
Check back for updates to this story.
