ADA SECTION 508-Bob Dunning: This order is outrageous, disturbing, unbelievable

If you are the parent or guardian of a child or children who currently attend any public school in the state of California, or if you are the parent or guardian of a child or children who attended a public school in the state of California at any time since Jan. 1, 2008, I hope you are sitting down.

Based on an order by Judge Kimberly J. Mueller of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, Sacramento Division, your child’s confidential records are about to be released to a couple of outfits known as the “Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association” and the “Concerned Parents Association.”

This is all the result of a lawsuit filed by both the Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association and the Concerned Parents Association (the plaintiffs) against the California Department of Education (the defendant).

According to the court, “Plaintiffs allege that the Defendant, the California Department of Education (CDE), has violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (‘IDEA’), among other related laws, by failing to monitor, investigate, provide services to, and enforce the rights of children with disabilities consistent with its obligations under the law. The Defendant denies these allegations.”

So far, so good. There’s nothing wrong with a group of concerned parents suing the state when they feel the state is not doing its job.

But here’s where things get interesting, especially if you’re a parent who cares about confidentiality for your children.

“As part of this lawsuit, and in order to prove their claims,” the Court goes on, “Plaintiffs have requested that the California Department of Education disclose subject to a Protective Order discussed below, information that it stores on databases and network drives that contain protected personal information of children, including children with disabilities, and children who are attending, or who have attended, a California school at any time since January 1, 2008.”

In other words, all children who are attending or have attended school since Jan. 1, 2008, not just children with disabilities.

Note that the court uses the term “California school” without qualification. Does that mean public and private schools? Does it mean just elementary and high schools or also Cal, Stanford, UC Davis and St. Mary’s? I wrote “public schools” earlier only because I assumed only public schools were involved. Now I’m not so sure.

In any regard, here’s why you’d better be sitting down.

“Examples of information that is stored on CDE’s databases and network drives includes name, Social Security number, home address, demographics, course information, statewide assessment results, teacher demographics, program information, behavior and discipline information, progress reports, special education assessment plans, special education assessments/evaluations, Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), records pertaining to health, mental health and medical information, student statewide identifiers (SSID), attendance statistics, information on suspensions and expulsions, and results on state tests.”

Not to mention what your kid had for lunch last Friday.

For those who think the state can’t possibly be forced to reveal such information to an unincorporated association of concerned parents in Morgan Hill, think again.

Notes the Court: “The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (‘FERPA’), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (‘IDEA’), are federal laws that protect the privacy of student records. These laws permit the disclosure of these records to comply with a Court order.”

There you have it. The Court can, indeed, order the California Department of Education to turn over every scrap of information about your kid to a bunch of complete strangers from Morgan Hill to use as they see fit.

The words “outrageous,” “disturbing” and “unbelievable” come to mind, along with that favorite word of lawyers the world over, “egregious.”

Ah, but the Court in its wisdom has issued a Protective Order that “prevents any party from disclosing confidential information acquired in the course of the lawsuit, including student records, to anyone other than the parties, their attorneys and consultants, and the Court. None of the information may be used outside the context of this lawsuit, and the parties are required to either return or destroy the confidential records at the conclusion of the lawsuit. No student’s identifying records will be disclosed to the public.”

Of course they won’t. Security leaks never happen, do they?

When major corporations such as Bank of America, Sony, Target and many others have to admit that their security systems have been breached despite their million-dollar efforts at confidentiality, we’re supposed to trust a collection of parents from Morgan Hill to have enough systems in place that none of this personal and confidential information will ever leak out?

If you don’t want any of this to happen to you or your kids, “you must notify the Court by April 1, 2016,” by either writing a letter to Judge Mueller, or by printing out a form from the CDE’s website and mailing it to the Court.

“DO NOT CALL THE COURT,” we are warned in all caps. “THE COURT WILL NOT ACCEPT PHONE CALLS ABOUT THIS MATTER.”

If I were a party to this ruling I wouldn’t be taking phone calls either.

“Failure either to submit an Objection Form or letter to the Court by April 1, 2016, will be deemed a waiver of your right to object to the disclosure of your or your child’s protected personal information and records as described above.”

Which is exactly backward. Instead of having to “opt out” of something you had nothing to do with and to which you have not been personally notified, you should have to affirmatively “opt in” before any personal and confidential information can be released.

As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no plan to personally notify any of us who are affected by this ruling about our rights. We, as parents, haven’t been notified by anyone and I’m sure you haven’t either.

Which means many thousands of records will be released to the Morgan Hill folks without anyone even knowing about how they could have prevented it.And that’s the biggest crime of all.

— Reach Bob Dunning at [email protected]