Maryland School System Found Out of Compliance With Federal Law
On Wednesday, July 29th, the U.S. Department of Justice sent an email to the Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland notifying them that they are out of compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. FERPA is a federal privacy law (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 C.F.R. Part 99) that gives parents—and students once they turn 18—rights to access, amend, and control disclosure of education records held by schools receiving U.S. Department of Education funding.
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The Department of Education and the Department of Justice are partnering to initiate enforcement proceedings.
Seems fairly cut and dried, but some systems, such as Anne Arundel, claim FERPA allows them to keep student information from parents. This is incorrect.
The enforcement was triggered by parents who were denied by AACPS employees the right to inspect and review their child's education records. The district also unlawfully disclosed personally identifiable information about the student's records without the approval of the parents and denied the parents the right to a hearing to challenge and seek correction of their child's educational records.
Anne Arundel County Public Schools enacted a policy that directs school personnel to follow county policy JQ-RA regarding transgender or gender non-conforming students and honor the student's self-identified name and pronouns without regard to the student's official records and to classify any gender identity actions as confidential "medically classified information" that does NOT have to be disclosed to parents except where legally required.
Federal funding of the school system, which totals approximately $100 million dollars, is contingent on the system enforcing parental rights as stated in the law.
According to the DOJ, AACPS policy JQ-RA is in violation of FERPA. The Department of Justice demanded the following actions within 7 days:
- Rescind or revise JQ-RA or any other policy that authorizes or directs staff to withhold information from parents contrary to their rights.
- Provide the parents involved in the complaint with full and complete access to their child's records.
- Establish and provide notice of a hearing procedure, consistent with FERPA, whereby parents may seek correction of any incorrect or misleading information in their child's education records.
- Issue a written directive to all AACPS staff clarifying that no policy, practice or guideline may prevent parents from accessing or being given information about any portion of their children's educational information including records containing information about their transgender status, gender identity, sexual orientation, preferred name or preferred pronouns.
- Produce all training materials regarding JQ-RA or otherwise addressing the disclosure of student information to parents.
The DOJ then directed the AACPS to forward them evidence that those steps have been completed in a timely fashion or risk initiation of civil action by the United States against the system.
Anne Arundel is the first district in Maryland to be investigated by the United States Department of Justice. Other counties such as Montgomery, Prince Georges and Frederick have been hit with Title IX investigations by ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR)—not DOJ investigations.
