Schools releasing student personal information: How to stop it

HOUSTON – With all the papers and forms your child is bringing home this week, it's easy to just sign your name without actually reading all of the fine print. But if you're concerned about protecting your child's personal information, there is one form you want to make sure you read and sign.

The document is about student directory information. Unless you sign it telling your child's school not to release their information, in most districts in our area, the data is up for grabs to anyone who asks for it.

Student directory information is defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) as "information contained in the education records of a student that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed." But check out the list of information included: student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, dates of attendance, photographs, weight and height, major field of study, degrees, honors, and awards received, grade level and most recent school attended.

In 2010, Channel 2 News requested and received a list of student directory information for every first-grader enrolled in the Houston Independent School District. We received the names, addresses, dates of birth and telephone numbers for 12,141 first graders.

"We don't have the option not to do it," HISD spokeswoman Elneita Hutchins-Taylor told Channel 2's Amy Davis five years ago.

But schools do now have a choice under federal law. HISD just changed its policy this year to only release the information about students to military recruiters, publicly elected officials and alumni groups and student reunion committees.

We discovered other districts are still far more lax.

On its website, Katy ISD explains its policy to parents this way: "Many parents are under the misunderstanding that Katy ISD is required to keep all information about their students private. This is NOT the case; in fact the opposite is true: Katy ISD, as a governmental body, MUST disclose information to any member of the public who asks for it under the Texas Public Information Act."

Katy ISD lets parents opt out of allowing anyone to receive information about their child or restrict the information only to being used for school publications like yearbooks and newsletters. Remember, this is an opt-out system. Unless you sign the form telling the district not to release the information, you have no control over who gets it and for what reason.

We asked some of the largest school districts in our area about their student directory information policies. If your child's school district is not listed below,  you should contact the administration office to get their policy.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD sent Channel 2 News the following information:

In accordance with the Texas Public Information Act and No Child Left Behind, Cypress-Fairbanks I.S.D. must release certain non-confidential information about our students if a writtenrequest is received by the district. This information, known as "Directory Information", includes the student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, school, grade level, photograph, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams, dates of enrollment, awards received, and the most recent previous school attended. As you may know, many organizations and businesses request this information

in order to mail information or contact parents or students for commercial purposes. Other organizations, such as community or sports associations, military recruiters, and scholarship programs, also request this information. The District has divided release of Directory Information into two categories: (1) school-sponsored or school-related, and (2) third-party requestors. If parents do not want to have Directory Information released to one or both of the categories of the requestors, they must indicate this preference on the "Student Demographic Information" form (for new students) or on the "Emergency Information and Medical/Parent Authorization" form (for existing students). This will prohibit release of "Directory Information" to the respective requestors.

The district does not distinguish between third-party requestors; therefore, if a parent wishes to withhold Directory Information from any third-party (such as military recruiters or institutions of higher education), the parent must indicate this preference on the stated form.

Fort Bend ISD Board Policy FL (LOCAL) defines directory information as the following:

 

•Student name; address; telephone listing; electronic mail address; photograph; date and place of birth; major field of study; degrees, honors, and awards received; dates of attendance; grade level; most recent educational institution attended; participation in officially recognized activities and sports; and weight and height of members of athletic teams.

 
Details about this Directory Information can be found in the student handbook (see attached), and parents can object to the release of this information on the 2015-2016 Parent and Student Consent Checklist. This paper form is sent home with all students at the beginning of the year, but can also be submitted electronically through our Family Access system.

 
The first three questions on the checklist are about the release of directory and student information.

 
•The first allows the District to use this directory information for specified school purposes, such as yearbooks, student newspapers, recognitions, etc.

•The second refers to the release of this directory information to others who may request it from the District.

•The third refers to military recruiters and higher education.

 

Aldine ISD releases all information considered student directory information to any requesters unless the student's parents have signed the forms asking the district not to.