Section (5000) Students
Policy Name Student Records: Confidentiality
Policy Number 5125
Date Approved 10/10/1989
Date Revised 2/11/2002
Date Revised  
Date Revised  
Date Revised  
Policy Educational records will be kept for each student and will reflect the physical, emotional, social and academic aspects of a student's development in the educational process.

Safeguards shall be established by the school administration to protect the student and the student's family from invasion of privacy in the collection, maintenance and dissemination of information, and to provide accessibility to recorded information by those legally entitled thereto.

For the purposes of this policy:

"Parent" means a natural parent, an adopted, or a legal guardian. If parents are divorced or legally separated, the parent granted custody and the parent not granted custody of a minor child both have the right of access to the academic, medical, hospital, or other health records of the child, unless a court order prohibits access. Whenever a student has attained the age of 18 years or is attending an institution of post-secondary education, the permission or consent required of, and the rights accorded to, the parents or guardians of the student shall thereafter be required of, accorded to, the student.

"Student record" means any item of information related to an identifiable student, which is maintained by a school district or required to be maintained by an employee in the performance of his/her duties whether recorded in handwriting, print, tapes, film microfilm or other means. Student records include information relative to an individual student gathered within or without the school system and maintained within the school system, regardless of the physical form in which it is maintained. Any information maintained for the purpose of review by a second party is considered a student record.

"Student record" shall not include records related to a student compiled by a school officer or employee, which are used only as a personal memory aid, remain in the sole possession of the maker and are not accessible or revealed to any other person except a substitute. "Substitute" means a person who performs the duties of the individual who made the notes on a temporary basis, and does not refer to a person who permanently succeeds the maker of the notes in his or her position.

The superintendent shall develop procedures providing for the following:

1. Annually informing parents and eligible students of their rights.

2. Permitting parents to inspect and review educational records, including, at least, a statement of the procedure to be followed by a parent or eligible student who requests to inspect and review the educational records, with an understanding that the procedure may not deny access to educational records; a description of the circumstances in which the district feels it has a legitimate cause to deny a request for a copy of such records; a schedule of fees for copies; and a listing of the types and locations of education records maintained by the school and the titles and addresses of school officials responsible for those records.

3. Not disclosing personally identifiable information from a student's education records without the prior written consent of the student's parent, except as otherwise permitted by administrative regulations; including at least a statement of whether the school will disclose personally identifiable information from the records to other school officials within the school who have been determined by the school to have legitimate educational interests, and, if so, a specification of the criteria for determining which parties are "school officials" and what the school considers to be a "legitimate educational interest"; and a specification of the information to be designated as directory information.

4. Maintaining the record of disclosures of personally identifiable information from a student's education records and permitting a parent to inspect that record.

5. Providing a parent with an opportunity to seek the correction of the student's education records through a request to amend the records or a hearing, and permitting the parent or an eligible student to place a statement in the education records of the student.

6. Guaranteeing access to student records to authorized persons within five days following the date of request. Where a request for records is made by a parent of a student requiring special education, and the request is made in order to prepare for a Planning and Placement team meeting or due process hearing, such records will be provided within three (3) days of receipt of such request.

7. Assuring security of student records.

8. Enumerating and describing the student records maintained by the school system.

Legal Reference: Connecticut General Statutes

1-210(b)(11) & (17) Access to public records. Exempt records.

7-109 Destruction of documents

10-15b Access of parent or guardians to student's records

10-154a Professional communication between teacher or nurse and student

46b-56 (e) Access to records of minors

10-221b Board of education to establish written uniform policy re: treatment recruiters

Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (section 438 of the General Education Provisions Act, as amended, added by section 513 of P.L. 93-568, codified at 20 U.S.C. 1232g.)

Regulations of the U.S. Dept. of Education published in 45 C.F.R. 99

Connecticut Public Records Administration Schedule V - Disposition of Education Records