Hawkins v. Central Dauphin School District, AP 2016-0583, 2016 PA O.O.R.D. LEXIS 760. The Office of Open Records reverses its earlier decision and holds that a video from a school bus video system showing an altercation between an adult and a 17-year-old student is not an educational record of the student under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g.
SUMMARY AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND
A request (“Request”) was submitted to the Central Dauphin School District (“District”) pursuant to the Right-to-Know Law (“RTKL”), 65 P.S. §§ 67.101 et seq., seeking a video from a District school bus. The requested video showed an adult grabbing a 17-year-old student by the wrist.
The District denied the Request, stating that disclosure of the video would violate FERPA and would result in the loss of federal funding. 65 P.S. § 67.708(b)(1)(i).
On appeal, the Office of Open Records (“OOR”) granted the appeal and held that the video was a public record. In the OOR’s view, only records relating to a student’s academics are “educational records” under FERPA. In making this determination, the OOR reversed its earlier decision in Remling v. Bangor Area Sch. Dist., OOR Dkt. AP 2011-0021, 2011 PA O.O.R.D. LEXIS 74 which held that such videos are educational records under FERPA and exempt from disclosure under the RTKL.
DISCUSSION
FERPA protects personally identifiable information contained in education records from disclosure and financially penalizes school districts “which [have] a policy or practice of permitting the release of education records … of students without the written consent of their parents.” 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1). FERPA and its implementing regulations define “education records” as those records that are “[d]irectly related to a student” and “[m]aintained by an educational agency or institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution.” 20 U.S.C. §1232g(a)(4)(A); 34 C.F.R. 99.3.
The OOR acknowledged that the definition of educational records is broad and that, by its terms “appears to encompass all records held by an educational institution and which relate to a student.” Nevertheless, the OOR stated that “the courts interpreting FERPA have made clear that only those records relating to student academics” are education records protected by FERPA and held that the video was not an educational record.
Though the language used by the OOR in the Hawkins decision suggests that all courts agree with this narrow interpretation, the reality is that the OOR was relying on state and federal decisions from other jurisdictions that have been rejected by other courts for being inconsistent with the plain language of FERPA. Moreover, the OOR’s new position is inconsistent with guidance issued by the...
