For the second time in three years, the U.S. Department of Education is revising its rules governing the confidentiality of student information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).The revision getting the most attention -- both positive and negative -- would broaden the universe of government employees and contractors who can obtain student data for accountability purposes, including performance audits and "longitudinal data" studies (tracking the performance of a set of students as they progress through school).Less publicized is the Department's proposal to revamp the concept of "directory information." Directory information operates as an exception to FERPA confidentiality.
Author: Frank LoMonte
Nothing funny about what happened to this forum; 2nd Circuit tramples legal precedent to rule against censored students
It's tempting to say that a federal appeals court's ill-considered decision in dismissing the First Amendment claims of censored journalists from New York's Ithaca High School is a fluke, a one-of-a-kind happenstance that carries no larger meaning for the well-being of journalists elsewhere.After all, last week's ruling by the 2nd U.S.
Arizona judge narrows scope of FERPA “education records” in Tucson shooter Loughner’s case
An Arizona judge's decision letting the media obtain internal college correspondence about Tucson shooter Jared Loughner's record of erratic behavior adopts a sensibly limited view of the type of documents that can be concealed as "education records."Arizona Superior Court Judge Stephen C.
More aware in Delaware? House bill would, finally, open university meetings and records
In 1743, Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia Gazette published a notice announcing the arrival of a new public institution of higher learning:
We are informed that there is a Free-School opened at the House of Mr. Alison in Chester County, for the Promotion of Learning, where all Persons may be instructed in the Languages and some other Parts of Polite Literature, without any Expences for their Education.In the centuries since Presbyterian clergyman Francis Alison opened the doors of a 12-student academy in his modest home two miles outside the village of New London, much about the University of Delaware has radically transformed.But this much has not: The public had no legal right to demand access to its meetings or records in 1743, and it still doesn't today.State Rep.
May 21 Rapture checklist: Say prayers, kiss family goodbye, donate to SPLC
Fans of the Student Press Law Center are pretty astute consumers of news, so we assume you’ve all heard by now that, around suppertime this Saturday, civilization as we know it is coming to an end.When the Second Circuit kneecapped students’ free-speech rights on the Internet in the Doninger case, we said, “Gosh, that’s awful.
“If you can’t beat the school board, join it.” Teenage editor is about to be his principal’s boss.
Memo to America's high school principals: Be very, very careful whose First Amendment rights you step on.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Department of Education focuses renewed attention on campus crime disclosure
Federal law requires all colleges to generate an annual public snapshot of serious crimes on their campuses, but many of the reported statistics appear implausibly small or are inconsistent with other agencies' data.The U.S.
Getting censored can be its own “mark of excellence”
One of the most common -- and most insidious -- rationalizations for censoring student publications is "poor quality." It's the last refuge for the censor who is out of excuses, because frankly, it's always possible to find a blemish on even the finest journalistic work.The idea that a newspaper needs to be "edited" or "proofread" by the college president or public-relations director for purposes of "teaching good journalism" has never stood up to the straight-face test.
Pacific Lutheran newspaper latest to report hundreds of copies stolen
As a journalist, you know you are doing something right if you make some of your readers angry. By that measurement, the staff of The Mooring Mast at Pacific Lutheran University must be doing superb work.Student editors at the Tacoma, Wash., school report that some 700 copies of the 1,500-circulation newspaper were swiped from their racks last Friday.As the Tacoma News-Tribune reported, the edition contained several potentially controversial items that might have motivated a thief, among them a story alluding to a flap from last season over allegations that softball coaches used abusive language to players.
Student rights took center stage on World Press Freedom Day
Last week's celebration of World Press Freedom Day was devoted to the theme of "21st century media," and the central role of students as society's information-gatherers was impossible to ignore -- down to the gavel-to-gavel coverage supplied by student volunteers from Georgetown University.The Student Press Law Center and 39 leading journalism groups from across America joined in urging the delegates to the UNESCO-sponsored event to keep the rights of students at the forefront of the first World Press Freedom Day ever celebrated on United States soil.