FLORIDA — The state Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court’s decision that Florida students’ records cannot be released to the public even when identifiable information is concealed.
The case, WFTV v. Seminole County School Board, involved a Florida television station that filed public records requests in December 2001 and January 2002 for student discipline records and a school bus surveillance tape. The station was planning a broadcast about a series of incidents on Seminole County school buses. When the requests were denied by school officials, WFTV filed suit.
In May 2004, the state’s Fifth District Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that student educational records are “confidential and exempt” from Florida Open Records laws even if identifying information about students is removed. The school board cited a Florida statute that states, “Every pupil or student shall have a right of privacy with respect to the educational records kept on him or her.”
The TV station appealed to the state Supreme Court, which issued an order on Dec. 23, declining to review the appeals court’s decision.
Jonathan Kaney, the TV station’s attorney, said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s decision to let the ruling stand.
“I thought the court would want to make clear that … once you truly anonymize a record, there’s no privacy at stake,” Kaney said. The federal education records privacy law, FERPA, only regulates the release of records that contain personally identifiable information about students. Many state education records privacy laws are based on the federal statute.
Kaney said he has been approached by open-records advocates in Florida to eliminate some exemptions in the state open-records law. Legislation would force school districts across the state to interpret the open-records law in a consistent manner, Kaney said.
— Campbell Roth
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