— In Nevada, the Nevada Supreme Court interpreted “education record” as that term is used in FERPA and Nevada privacy laws to “exclude materials informally created in the ordinary course of business that a school possesses.” The case arose out a request by the adoptive mother of a special needs student seeking “the education records of J.B., a student in a Clark County School District (CCSD) school… Believing that the materials CCSD initially provided in response were incomplete, (the adoptive mother) subsequently requested all emails mentioning J.B. that CCSD stored on a Google cloud server. CCSD refused the request.” The lower court ordered the release of the information under an interpretation of FERPA that emails were “education records to which FERPA and the parallel Nevada statutes” authorized parental access. The appellate court reversed. The appellate court relied heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court case of Owasso Independent School District v. Falvo. In Falvo the Court declares that the primary character of education records is that they “will be kept in a filing cabinet in a records room at the school or on a permanent secure database, perhaps even after the student is no longer enrolled.” The Nevada Supreme Court relies upon Falvo to declare that student information must be purposely kept “in the same way the registrar maintains a student’s folder in a permanent file.” As a result, the Nevada Supreme Court held that “education records therefore generally exclude materials informally created in the ordinary course of business that a school possesses but which do not rise to the level of institutional records.” This means that “deliberate action to store such emails as institutional records is critical…(and) such intentionality is not present” in the case of the emails on the school district server. The Nevada Supreme Court agreed that “an email may constitute an education record…(when) a school official retain(s) such emails in a deliberate fashion so that such information is preserved.” Even so, however, the parental request of “all emails” mentioning a specific student presents a policy decision for school officials as to the disclosure. Clark County School District v. Eighth Judicial District Court
— In Minnesota, schools are implementing a less traumatic framework for active shooter drills in schools. Minnesota law now “restricts active shooter simulations with officers and staff to times when a majority of students aren’t at school. It also requires that districts provide advance notice of active shooter drills, lets families opt their children out of the drills and mandates that staff debrief students.”
— In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Justice “says tips to the state’s Speak Up, Speak Out threat reporting hotline were up 30% in the last school year…That follows a 40% increase in the 2023-24 school year.”
— In North Carolina, a statewide policy allowing armed personnel in private schools goes into effect. House Bill 193 allows private schools to permit employees and volunteers to carry concealed weapons on campus, a change proponents say will help budget-strapped schools afford security.