UPDATE: February 19, 2016 – ADDITIONAL INFORMATION on the CUSD website
To All Parents and Guardians of Students in the Coronado Unified School District:
The California Department of Education (“CDE”) is currently engaged in litigation with two non-profit associations comprised of parents and guardians of children with disabilities. The plaintiffs in that litigation have requested numerous documents, as well as student data collected and stored by CDE, which may include personally identifiable student information. This litigation impacts all school districts across the state, including Coronado Unified School District.
The Morgan Hill Concerned Parents Association and the Concerned Parent Association filed a lawsuit in April 2012 against the CDE alleging widespread, systemic non-compliance by local education agencies with special education laws. The suit also alleges the CDE fails to monitor, investigate and correct such non-compliance in accordance with the law. The CDE denies these allegations and is actively defending the litigation.
Our district was NOT involved in the lawsuit and is NOT the subject of any of the suit’s allegations. Our district is NOT required to disclose any student information, nor does it intend to do so. Nonetheless, as a part of this lawsuit, CDE has been ordered by the court to release all data it has collected on general and special education students since January 1, 2008.
To comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), CDE has been ordered, among other things, to inform parents and students of the disclosure of such information. CDE has requested that school districts post the following link to CDE’s website: http://www.cde.ca.gov/morganhillcase. The link provides a Notice and Objection form to allow parents to object, by April 1, 2016, to the disclosure of personally identifiable information related to their children. You may also contact the California Department of Education at 916-319-0800.
Do NOT contact the schools or the district office about details of this litigation or your rights in objecting to the disclosure of personally identifiable information related to your children. My disappointment with this legal maneuvering is great, yet the district has no more power over these proceedings than you do. Please use the link above to voice your concern by completing the special form titled “Objection to Disclosure of Student Information and Records” and sending it via regular mail to the United States District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller before April 1, 2016.
District employees will NOT accept or keep records or copies of your correspondence to the courts.
Jeffrey P. Felix, Ed. D.
Superintendent of Schools
Coronado Unified School District
