The U.S. Justice and Education departments have announced a new enforcement action concerning Los Angeles public-school policies that they say can keep sensitive information about students from their parents.
The agencies framed the action around federal parental-access protections, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. They contend that school policies cannot create a general rule of secrecy that overrides rights Congress gave parents to inspect education records and receive information about certain surveys or programmes.
The announcement does not by itself establish that the Los Angeles Unified School District violated either statute. The district will have an opportunity to answer the agencies’ legal and factual assertions, and the scope of any remedy will depend on the administrative process or litigation that follows.
The dispute is likely to turn on how federal record-access rules apply to information held by teachers and counsellors, what counts as an education record and when a school may limit disclosure to protect a student’s safety or privacy. Those questions cannot be resolved by slogans about either parental control or student confidentiality; they require attention to the statutory text and the circumstances in which the information was created and maintained.
The departments also sent guidance to state attorneys general restating their view of federal parental-rights law. That broader step suggests the Los Angeles action is meant as a signal to school systems nationwide, not merely a local disagreement. Whether courts accept the agencies’ interpretation remains an open question.
Official Justice Department announcement
