Your Right to Access Your Child's Educational Records

Educational records are an important source of information about your child. They include information about his or her identification as a student with a disability, assessment results, and educational placement and services. These records are confidential.

You have the following rights concerning your child's school records:

• To inspect and review your child's records within five (5) business days of your request to do so and before any meeting regarding your child’s IEP or any hearing regarding your child's identification, assessment, educational placement, or special education services. The District will not charge you to search for or to retrieve information regarding your child.

• To be given copies of your child's records within five (5) business days of your written or oral request. The District may charge you for the actual cost of reproducing these records, but if this cost prevents you from exercising the right to receive such copies, the copies will be reproduced at no cost to you.

• To receive a response to a reasonable request for explanations and interpretations of the records.

• To have your representative inspect and review the records.

• To be informed, upon request, of the types and locations of educational records collected, maintained, and used by the school.

These rights are applicable to records possessed by all public agencies that provide educationally related services to students with disabilities and those that educate students with disabilities in state hospitals or developmental centers and in youth and adult facilities.

Because they are confidential student records, your child’s IEP and other special education documents will be accessible only to those who are authorized under the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), such as the personnel responsible for implementing your child’s educational program and those persons and agencies who need to access the information to comply with Federal and State laws and regulations. Your consent must be obtained before your child’s records are disclosed to any person or agency not authorized under FERPA.

The District and other appropriate public agencies keep a record of individuals, except parents and authorized District employees, who access a student's educational records. This record includes the name of the individuals accessing the information, the date access was given, and the purpose for which they were authorized to use the records.

It is presumed that you, as the parent or guardian, have authority to inspect and review records relating to your child unless the District has been informed otherwise.

If any educational record includes information on a child or children other than your own, you have the right to inspect and review only the information relating to your child or to be informed of that specific information.

Special education records are maintained by the District for five (5) years after a student has completed the school program, after which time they are destroyed.

If you believe your child's records contain information that is wrong, misleading, or that violates the privacy or other rights of your child, you may request that the District change the information. The District will decide whether or not to grant your request within a reasonable period of time from the receipt of your request. If the District refuses to change the information, you will receive notice of that decision and your right to a hearing on the issue.

Upon request, the District will provide you with an opportunity for a hearing to challenge the information in your child's educational records. If the decision at the hearing is in your favor, the District will amend the information accordingly and inform you so in writing.

If the decision at the hearing is unfavorable to you, you will have the right to include in your child's records, a written statement of your objections to the information. This statement will be part of your child's school records until the information objected to is corrected or removed. If your child's records or the contested information is disclosed to anyone, your written statement will also be disclosed.