2007 California Education Code Article 5. Privacy Of Pupil Records

CA Codes (edc:49073-49079)

49073.  School districts shall adopt a policy identifying those
categories of directory information as defined in subdivision (c) of
Section 49061 that may be released.  The district shall determine
which individuals, officials, or organizations may receive directory
information.  However, no information may be released to a private
profitmaking entity other than employers, prospective employers, and
representatives of the news media, including, but not limited to,
newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations.  The names
and addresses of pupils enrolled in grade 12 or who have terminated
enrollment prior to graduation may be provided to a private school or
college operating under Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 94700) of
Part 59 or its authorized representative.  However, no such private
school or college shall use that information for other than purposes
directly related to the academic or professional goals of the
institution, and any violation of this provision is a misdemeanor,
punishable by a fine of not to exceed two thousand five hundred
dollars (,500).  In addition, the privilege of the school or
college to receive the information shall be suspended for a period of
two years from the time of discovery of the misuse of the
information.  Any district may limit or deny the release of specific
categories of directory information to any public or private
nonprofit organization based upon a determination of the best
interests of pupils.
   Directory information may be released according to local policy as
to any pupil or former pupil.  However, notice shall be given at
least on an annual basis of the categories of information that the
school plans to release and of the recipients.  No directory
information shall be released regarding any pupil if a parent has
notified the school district that the information shall not be
released.
   This section shall become operative on January 1, 1997.



49073.5.  (a) It is the intent of the Legislature that a school
district, in adopting a policy pursuant to Section 49073 governing
the release of pupil directory information, not purposefully exclude
any military services representative from access to that information.

   (b) It is further the intent of the Legislature, in the interest
of pupil confidentiality, that school districts minimize the release
of pupil telephone numbers in the absence of express parental
consent.  The Legislature finds and declares that the nondisclosure
of pupil telephone numbers will reduce the possibility of harassment
of pupils and their families by organizations that receive pupil
directory information.


49074.  Nothing in this chapter shall preclude a school district
from providing, in its discretion, statistical data from which no
pupil may be identified to any public agency or entity or private
nonprofit college, university, or educational research and
development organization when such actions would be in the best
educational interests of pupils.



49075.  (a) A school district may permit access to pupil records to
any person for whom a parent of the pupil has executed written
consent specifying the records to be released and identifying the
party or class of parties to whom the records may be released.  The
recipient must be notified that the transmission of the information
to others without the written consent of the parent is prohibited.
The consent notice shall be permanently kept with the record file.
   (b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), school lunch applications and
information shared pursuant to Section 49557.2 shall be retained by
any school district in the manner most useful to the administration
of the school lunch program.


49076.  A school district is not authorized to permit access to
pupil records to any person without written parental consent or under
judicial order except that:
   (a) Access to those particular records relevant to the legitimate
educational interests of the requester shall be permitted to the
following:
   (1) School officials and employees of the district, members of a
school attendance review board appointed pursuant to Section 48321,
and any volunteer aide, 18 years of age or older, who has been
investigated, selected, and trained by a school attendance review
board for the purpose of providing followup services to pupils
referred to the school attendance review board, provided that the
person has a legitimate educational interest to inspect a record.
   (2) Officials and employees of other public schools or school
systems, including local, county, or state correctional facilities
where educational programs leading to high school graduation are
provided or where the pupil intends to or is directed to enroll,
subject to the rights of parents as provided in Section 49068.
   (3) Authorized representatives of the Comptroller General of the
United States, the Secretary of Education, and administrative head of
an education agency, state education officials, or their respective
designees, or the United States Office of Civil Rights, where the
information is necessary to audit or evaluate a state or federally
supported education program or pursuant to a federal or state law,
provided that except when collection of personally identifiable
information is specifically authorized by federal law, any data
collected by those officials shall be protected in a manner which
will not permit the personal identification of pupils or their
parents by other than those officials, and any personally
identifiable data shall be destroyed when no longer needed for the
audit, evaluation, and enforcement of federal legal requirements.
   (4) Other state and local officials to the extent that information
is specifically required to be reported pursuant to state law
adopted prior to November 19, 1974.
   (5) Parents of a pupil 18 years of age or older who is a dependent
as defined in Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.
   (6) A pupil 16 years of age or older or having completed the 10th
grade who requests access.
   (7) Any district attorney who is participating in or conducting a
truancy mediation program pursuant to Section 48263.5, or Section
601.3 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, or participating in the
presentation of evidence in a truancy petition pursuant to Section
681 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
   (8) A prosecuting agency for consideration against a parent or
guardian for failure to comply with the Compulsory Education Law
(Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 48200) of Part 27) or with
Compulsory Continuation Education (Chapter 3 (commencing with Section
48400) of Part 27).
   (9) Any probation officer or district attorney for the purposes of
conducting a criminal investigation or an investigation in regards
to declaring a person a ward of the court or involving a violation of
a condition of probation.
   (10) Any judge or probation officer for the purpose of conducting
a truancy mediation program for a pupil, or for purposes of
presenting evidence in a truancy petition pursuant to Section 681 of
the Welfare and Institutions Code.  The judge or probation officer
shall certify in writing to the school district that the information
will be used only for truancy purposes.  A school district releasing
pupil information to a judge or probation officer pursuant to this
paragraph shall inform, or provide written notification to, the
parent or guardian of the pupil within 24 hours of the release of the
information.
   (11) Any county placing agency for the purpose of fulfilling the
requirements of the health and education summary required pursuant to
Section 16010 of the Welfare and Institutions Code or for the
purpose of fulfilling educational case management responsibilities
required by the juvenile court or by law and to assist with the
school transfer or enrollment of a pupil. School districts, county
offices of education, and county placing agencies may develop
cooperative agreements to facilitate confidential access to and
exchange of the pupil information by electronic mail, facsimile,
electronic format, or other secure means.
   (b) School districts may release information from pupil records to
the following:
   (1) Appropriate persons in connection with an emergency if the
knowledge of the information is necessary to protect the health or
safety of a pupil or other persons.
   (2) Agencies or organizations in connection with the application
of a pupil for, or receipt of, financial aid.  However, information
permitting the personal identification of a pupil or his or her
parents may be disclosed only as may be necessary for purposes as to
determine the eligibility of the pupil for financial aid, to
determine the amount of the financial aid, to determine the
conditions which will be imposed regarding the financial aid, or to
enforce the terms or conditions of the financial aid.
   (3) The county elections official, for the purpose of identifying
pupils eligible to register to vote, and for conducting programs to
offer pupils an opportunity to register to vote.  The information,
however, shall not be used for any other purpose or given or
transferred to any other person or agency.
   (4) Accrediting associations in order to carry out their
accrediting functions.
   (5) Organizations conducting studies for, or on behalf of,
educational agencies or institutions for the purpose of developing,
validating, or administering predictive tests, administering student
aid programs, and improving instruction, if the studies are conducted
in a manner that will not permit the personal identification of
pupils or their parents by persons other than representatives of the
organizations and the information will be destroyed when no longer
needed for the purpose for which it is obtained.
   (6) Officials and employees of private schools or school systems
where the pupil is enrolled or intends to enroll, subject to the
rights of parents as provided in Section 49068.  This information
shall be in addition to the pupil's permanent record transferred
pursuant to Section 49068.
   A person, persons, agency, or organization permitted access to
pupil records pursuant to this section may not permit access to any
information obtained from those records by any other person, persons,
agency, or organization without the written consent of the pupil's
parent.  However, this paragraph does not require prior parental
consent when information obtained pursuant to this section is shared
with other persons within the educational institution, agency, or
organization obtaining access, so long as those persons have a
legitimate interest in the information.
   (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any school
district, including any county office of education or superintendent
of schools, may participate in an interagency data information system
that permits access to a computerized database system within and
between governmental agencies or districts as to information or
records which are nonprivileged, and where release is authorized as
to the requesting agency under state or federal law or regulation, if
each of the following requirements are met:
   (1) Each agency and school district shall develop security
procedures or devices by which unauthorized personnel cannot access
data contained in the system.
   (2) Each agency and school district shall develop procedures or
devices to secure privileged or confidential data from unauthorized
disclosure.
   (3) Each school district shall comply with the access log
requirements of Section 49064.
   (4) The right of access granted shall not include the right to
add, delete, or alter data without the written permission of the
agency holding the data.
   (5) An agency or school district may not make public or otherwise
release information on an individual contained in the database where
the information is protected from disclosure or release as to the
requesting agency by state or federal law or regulation.



49076.5.  (a) Notwithstanding Section 49076, each school district
shall release any information it has specific to a particular pupil's
identity and location that relates to the transfer of that pupil's
records to another school district within this state or any other
state or to a private school in this state to a designated peace
officer, upon his or her request, when a proper police purpose exists
for the use of that information.
   (b) In order to protect the privacy interests of the pupil, a
request to a school district for pupil record information pursuant to
this section shall meet the following requirements:
   (1) For the purposes of this section "proper police purpose" means
that probable cause exists that the pupil has been kidnapped and
that his or her abductor may have enrolled the pupil in a school and
that the agency has begun an active investigation.
   (2) Only designated peace officers and federal criminal
investigators and federal law enforcement officers, as defined in
Section 830.1 of the Penal Code, whose names have been submitted to
the school district in writing by a law enforcement agency, may
request and receive the information specified in subdivision (a).
Each law enforcement agency shall ensure that each school district
has at all times a current list of the names of designated peace
officers authorized to request pupil record information.
   (3) This section does not authorize designated peace officers to
obtain any pupil record information other than that authorized by
this section.
   (4) The law enforcement agency requesting the information shall
ensure that at no time shall any information obtained pursuant to
this section be disclosed or used for any purpose other than to
assist in the investigation of suspected criminal conduct of
kidnapping.  A violation of this paragraph shall be punishable as a
misdemeanor.
   (5) The designated peace officer requesting information authorized
for release by this section shall make a record on a form created
and maintained by the law enforcement agency which shall include the
name of the pupil about whom the inquiry was made, the consent of a
parent having legal custody of the pupil or a legal guardian, the
name of the officer making the inquiry, the date of the inquiry, the
name of the school district, the school district employee to whom the
request was made, and the information that was requested.
   (6) Whenever the designated peace officer requesting information
authorized for release by this section does so in person, by
telephone, or by some means other than in writing, the officer shall
provide the school district with a letter confirming the request for
pupil record information prior to any release of information.
   (7) No school district, or official or employee thereof, shall be
subject to criminal or civil liability for the release of pupil
record information in good faith as authorized by this section.



49077.  Information concerning a student shall be furnished in
compliance with a court order or a lawfully issued subpoena.  The
school district shall make a reasonable effort to notify the parent
or legal guardian and the pupil in advance of compliance with a
lawfully issued subpoena and, in the case of compliance with a court
order, if lawfully possible within the requirements of the order.



49078.  The service of a lawfully issued subpoena or a court order
upon a public school employee solely for the purpose of causing him
or her to produce a school record pertaining to any pupil may be
complied with by that employee, in lieu of the personal appearance as
a witness in the proceeding, by submitting to the court, or other
agency, or person designated in the subpoena, at the time and place
required by the subpoena or court order, a copy of that record,
accompanied by an affidavit certifying that the copy is a true copy
of the original record on file in the school or school office.  The
copy of the record shall be in the form of a photostat, microfilm,
microcard, or miniature photograph or other photographic copy or
reproduction, or an enlargement thereof.



49079.  (a) A school district shall inform the teacher of each pupil
who has engaged in, or is reasonably suspected to have engaged in,
any of the acts described in any of the subdivisions, except
subdivision (h), of Section 48900 or in Section 48900.2, 48900.3,
48900.4, or 48900.7 that the pupil engaged in, or is reasonably
suspected to have engaged in, those acts.  The district shall provide
the information to the teacher based upon any records that the
district maintains in its ordinary course of business, or receives
from a law enforcement agency, regarding a pupil described in this
section.
   (b) A school district, or school district officer or employee, is
not civilly or criminally liable for providing information under this
section unless it is proven that the information was false and that
the district or district officer or employee knew or should have
known that the information was false, or the information was provided
with a reckless disregard for its truth or falsity.
   (c) An officer or employee of a school district who knowingly
fails to provide information about a pupil who has engaged in, or who
is reasonably suspected to have engaged in, the acts referred to in
subdivision (a) is guilty of a misdemeanor, which is punishable by
confinement in the county jail for a period not to exceed six months,
or by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars (,000), or both.
   (d) For the 1994-95 school year, the information provided shall be
from the previous two school years.  For the 1996-97 school year and
each school year thereafter, the information provided shall be from
the previous three school years.
   (e) Any information received by a teacher pursuant to this section
shall be received in confidence for the limited purpose for which it
was provided and shall not be further disseminated by the teacher.