Dianna Pharr

Thursday, 02/19/2009 - 22:06

Jennifer, Eanes ISD refused to post the check register until very recently. As a citizen advocate for open government, I obtained the Eanes ISD check register each month and posted it on my site. Read all about it here: www.keepeanesinformed.com/eanes_isd_check_register.htm I am especially sensitive to privacy rights of schoolchildren after the Eanes ISD disclosed my child's highly confidential medical information. When I attempted to resolve the issue within the district, the district retained private attorneys to battle against the privacy rights of children. I work with parents across Texas and last November, I learned of a particularly egregious disclosure of confidential student information by Dallas ISD. Dallas ISD (DISD) disclosed confidential student education records to the public via the check register on the Dallas ISD (DISD) site and on the Dallas Morning News (DMN) site as well. In fact, on January 22, I notified the DMN that the DISD check register posted on the newspaper's site includes confidential education records. FERPA and IDEA federal laws require that public school districts protect confidential student information from disclosure. The district has a legal responsibility to redact confidential information from the check register before disclosing it to a third party. During November 2008, I submitted a complaint to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) regarding the district's noncompliance with federal law. TEA investigated my allegations, agreed, and subsequently ordered Dallas ISD to take specific corrective action by February 16, 2009. In part, TEA directed DISD to contact DMN so that the confidential information does not remain online, and further, provide DMN with a correctly redacted copy of the check register. Unfortunately, to date, the confidential student information that by law should be protected by the Dallas ISD, remains available for public inspection on the Dallas Morning News website.

Jennifer Peebles

Thursday, 02/19/2009 - 23:40

Dianna, Thanks for reading us and writing in here. It's great to hear that you got the Eanes ISD check register posted on your site! But I'm also sorry to hear that kids' medical info wound up getting out there. I think the old yin-and-yang of freedom of information vs. privacy rights is one of the biggest controversies of this new Internet age we're living in. The situation you describe with the kids and the check registers is just another example of that. Like you, I'm an open government advocate, but I admit I've also seen some crazy stuff get out on the Interwebs, stuff nobody ever intended to get out, posted inadvertently either by news organizations or by government agencies. I remember once when my old paper posted a state salary database (similar to Texas Watchdog's) for our state -- it turned out there was one poor guy in the database, out of like 55,000 state workers, for whom the state's computer screwed up and listed his last name as his Social Security number. So he showed up in the searchable database as something like "John 123-45-6789" working in the Department of Thinking Great Thoughts or something. We didn't catch it before we uploaded it. Someone at the state found him in the database on our Web site and called us about it. We took him out as fast as humanly possible, but we still felt bad that it had gotten posted. One more example: The city government in our town was trying to do better about making more documents and reports available on its Web site. Then one day a reporter I worked with came to me with a printout she had downloaded off the city Web site -- it was an addendum to an RFP for contract security services, and it listed every site in city/county government that had security services, told how many guards were there, said what time guards were there and when they went home, and whether they were armed. I'm not sure the city had intended that information to get out to the entire world. Again, we appreciate you reading and writing in. Take care, Jennifer P. jennifer@texaswatchdog.org

Dianna Pharr

Friday, 02/20/2009 - 08:14

Jennifer, Of course, mistakes can happen. The right response is prompt correction and creation of review policy to prevent future problems. However, Eanes ISD posted my child\'s private information immediately after I created my website to post Eanes ISD public information. Unfortunately, this is retaliation rather than Chinese philosophy. And they didn\'t say sorry. They hired private attorneys to battle his privacy rights. And even after the U.S. Department of Education found that Eanes ISD had violated federal law, the district didn\'t stop. They hired the same private attorney to appeal the decision. And meanwhile, the district kept disclosing the confidential information. In the end, there isn\'t an agency (state or federal) that will issue consequences and therefore, there is no incentive for districts to follow the law. As long as public school districts can spend our tax dollars without limit or accountability to battle our children\'s rights, this problem will continue and children will pay the price. More about that here: www.keepeanesinformed.com/$58_million.htm I notified both Dallas ISD and Dallas Morning News in November 2008 and now three months later, even with TEA\'s intervention, the confidential information is still online. Dianna Pharr www.keepeanesinformed.com

Students' Advocate

Friday, 02/20/2009 - 11:05

My concern is growing. This Texas Watchdog website, after learning of DMN's refusal to protect minors from a legal violation, issues "blessings" to Mr. Fischer at the DMN who is intentionally furthering the violation of the rights of children. Yes, it's great to post PUBLIC information to make it accessible to the public. SLEAZY to pretend to be some "defender of the truth" when you know it contains private, protected information you never should have gotten your grubby little hands on in the first place. This is not inadvertent. It MAY have been incredibly careless and stupid of the DISD to post it to begin with, and pass it along to their buddy Kent Fischer at the DMN, or it may have been intentional and the DMN is nothing more than a pawn in their plot of retaliation. I read in the first thread on this story where a poster claimed that the DMN received the original register from DISD's attorneys. If so, why do you think the attorneys handed this information over to a news organization? This is not some Geraldo-style act of heroic journalism through the uncovering some secret, obscure information. This is a crime. Please tone down the "Three cheers for the DMN" rhetoric and talks of "inadvertent" and accidental disclosure. There are two parties to this crime. The DMN needs to take the register down, and either do its own redacting in a sufficient manner to comply with privacy laws (if it is so concerned with its self-perceived role as the "Beacon of Truth") or wait to get its next installment from the DISD attorneys.

Jennifer Peebles

Friday, 02/20/2009 - 11:35

Student Advocate, We appreciate you reading us and writing in. Just to be clear: We're glad the DMN has posted the DISD database, but we didn't know until Dianna wrote in (above) that the DMN's database still includes the child's private information. We are sorry to hear that. As I noted in a previous comment, at my old newspaper job, when someone pointed out to us that we had inadvertently published someone's Social Security number in a public database, we took it out of the database as soon as we could -- and we did it in such a way that we did not have to take the entire database down. Take care, Jennifer Peebles jennifer@texaswatchdog.org

Students' Advocate

Friday, 02/20/2009 - 13:20

Thank you for the clarification. I was concerned that after being notified of the DMN's refusal to protect the children, you were issuing praises to them. Your response to Ms. Pharr's comment above seemed to imply that this type of infraction was just an accidental "cost of doing business." Just to be clear here as well: I'm also glad the DMN posted the check register. I'm appalled that they refuse to take it down after being notified of the error months ago, compelled by the TEA to do so last month, and then proceed to promote the availability of this damaging information on sites such as this. It is most appreciated when avid defenders of access to public information, such as Ms. Pharr, are willing to take a stand when something is just flat out wrong, rather than turn a blind eye for what some may see as the greater good while children's privacy is the sacrificial lamb. They are not in the business of sacrificing themselves in the interest of open records. I appreciate your website and support your efforts. Complying with privacy laws and encouraging government transparency do not have to be mutually exclusive. Perhaps you could explain this in a more direct manner to Mr. Fischer, who seems to be having great difficulty with this concept, or digging in his heels like a stubborn child. Who is the real child in this situation?