School District Not Responding To Mom And Dad's Privacy Requests

[The_Non-Mom]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Wisconsin

As most of you know, I am the SM to the Little Girl. I am here to get info for both Mom and Dad on this one.

Here's the deal - The school district the Little Girl attends offers an online service for parents to access grade, attendance, and immunization records. Dad logged onto this service for the first time a couple of weeks ago (about four weeks or so after it was made available).

The Little Girl's account is under SF's name. Mom and SF are listed as "primary parents" (even though Dad is primary, but that's neither here nor there). All of SF's contact info is listed including work, home, and cell phone. Dad is listed as "father" but there is absolutely no contact info listed for him. I, the SM, am listed as an emergency contact. Dad is not sure why the school district would choose to list information on the account this way as the forms he submitted at the beginning of the year included full contact info both himself and Mom.

The thing that bothers Mom is that her other child with SF (Little Girl's half-sib) is also on this account. So Dad is able to see half-sib's grade, attendance, and immunization records as well as the Little Girl's. That means that I am listed as an emergency contact for half-sib, too.

Mom and Dad agree that the accounts need to be separated so each child has their own account with the appropriate parent's information listed. Dad called the school district office and spoke with the administrator for the online service. That guy pretty much told Dad to take a flying leap, that the accounts were already created and he didn't see a reason to go through the work of separating them. Mom also called the Little Girl's middle school and was told they would look into it but hasn't heard anything back.

The school district website says the following about the online service:
-Only authorized Legal Parents/Guardians will be allowed access to Family Access.
-When each account is created it is specifically for each parent making it so that each parent is only able to see their own children. No one else can see your student’s information.

So what can Mom and Dad do here? I suggested writing a tersely-worded letter and wonder if there are any statutes to cite regarding privacy in this type of situation.

Thanks for the help!

 

[JETX]

So what can Mom and Dad do here?

First, you seem to be confused as to 'Mom and Dad'. The child only has ONE 'mom' and ONE 'dad'... those being her BIOLOGICAL parents. Everyone else has NO standing.

The PARENTS of each child need to contact (go TO if needed) the school and make sure that the information is available ONLY to the proper parents.
Should be pretty simple, the school just needs to have two separate records.

 

[BL]

If your written request to pupil personnel of the school district gets the parents nowhere ,contact these people to file a complaint .

About the Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO)

 

[LdiJ]

I would recommend going straight to the superintendent of schools on this one. The online administrator was totally out of line to refuse to separate the accounts and I can bet that the superintendent would NOT be pleased at all.

 

[The_Non-Mom]

First, you seem to be confused as to 'Mom and Dad'. The child only has ONE 'mom' and ONE 'dad'... those being her BIOLOGICAL parents. Everyone else has NO standing.

The PARENTS of each child need to contact (go TO if needed) the school and make sure that the information is available ONLY to the proper parents.
Should be pretty simple, the school just needs to have two separate records.

Ummm...where in my post did I infer that there are more than two parents? Both parents have already contacted the school and they were both blown off. We know the school needs to have two separate accounts but they are refusing. That is Mom and Dad's problem.

 

[Ohiogal]

This is a violation of FERPA and mom and dad need to call the school on it. Quite frankly dad and you having access to your stepdaughter's half sibling's info is a violation of federal law.

 

[LdiJ]

This is a violation of FERPA and mom and dad need to call the school on it. Quite frankly dad and you having access to your stepdaughter's half sibling's info is a violation of federal law.

Which is why the superintendent, if he/she is made aware of it, will NOT be pleased that the online administrator refused to cooperate with changing it into two accounts.

 

[The_Non-Mom]

This is a violation of FERPA and mom and dad need to call the school on it. Quite frankly dad and you having access to your stepdaughter's half sibling's info is a violation of federal law.

Agreed, just as SF having access to SD's info is a violation as well. Mom and Dad agree (thank God!) that this is a problem caused by the school district and how they chose to enter information from the form provided to them and NOT by actions of the each other.

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[nextwife]

Additionally, the school had no right to omit DAD and substitute stepdad's information. It's fine if they wish to SUPPLIMENT the parent's contact info by also adding step info, but the PARENTS are the ones that have to be listed..

 

[BL]

Additionally, the school had no right to omit DAD and substitute stepdad's information. It's fine if they wish to SUPPLIMENT the parent's contact info by also adding step info, but the PARENTS are the ones that have to be listed..

Yes ,the links are in my link .

I had a similar issue where records indicated the Mom's BF as ( get this ) " Future Father to be " . My name was nowhere . ( great State for Lovers ) The records were quickly Corrected as my right under these laws per complaint to the compliance office .

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

 

[ALGURLX1]

Had a similar problem at the beginning of the school year. My daughter's half brother and she were on the same account. How we are not sure. His mom called me and let me know. When you log in there should be and ADD/DELETE student andthen you creat a seperate account using the student ID.
It was fairly simply and when we each contacted the school they were very apologetic, thankfully me and her brother's mom get a long fairly well.

 

[The_Non-Mom]

Well Dad wrote a polite but pointed to the principal of the Little Girl's school with a CC to Mom. I looked up the FERPA letter on deltabravo.net for him, so he used some of those lines. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon!

 

[LdiJ]

Well Dad wrote a polite but pointed to the principal of the Little Girl's school with a CC to Mom. I looked up the FERPA letter on deltabravo.net for him, so he used some of those lines. Hopefully, this will be resolved soon!

That is fine, but I would have written the letter to the superintendent of the school district, rather than the principal of the child's school.

 

[The_Non-Mom]

That is fine, but I would have written the letter to the superintendent of the school district, rather than the principal of the child's school.

Last night, I noticed that the training packet regarding the online service indicates the principal as the person to contact with questions. Mom and Dad probably should have started there first before contacting the district administrator and school secretary. I suggested to Dad he should give her until the end of the week to respond and then start moving up the ladder.

 

[ALGURLX1]

Last night, I noticed that the training packet regarding the online service indicates the principal as the person to contact with questions. Mom and Dad probably should have started there first before contacting the district administrator and school secretary. I suggested to Dad he should give her until the end of the week to respond and then start moving up the ladder.

You may want to check what the school's policy is on response time to parents. The principal at our school has 24 hours to give a response. It may only be a very basic PC response but a response none the less and then you can move up the chain of command per say.