I’ve had a number of concerns over the past few years about how Oklahoma interprets federal and state student privacy laws. Here’s yet another example – this time where they’re withholding information, citing state law. Nate Robson reports:
The state Department of Education refuses to release the graduation rates for 58 percent of the state’s public school districts and charter schools, mostly smaller ones. The department says that according to its legal interpretation, doing so would violate a state law meant to protect student privacy.
That means the 2013-2014 graduation rates for districts such as Piedmont, Bethany, Drumright, Sulphur and Perry – and for charter schools such as Harding Charter Preparatory High School – are under wraps. Overall, the cloaking applies to 249 of the state’s 419 high-school-level districts and charter schools.
The reasons cited are House Bill 1989, approved in 2013, and an administrative code written by the Education Department for applying the law. The code says any data with counts of fewer than 10 students must be withheld.
[…]
Legislators who authored HB 1989 said the state Education Department is overreaching in interpreting the statute, called the Student Data Accessibility, Transparency and Accountability Act of 2013.
Read more on Oklahoma Watch.