An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 14 – Pupil Records

system that ensures that these key emails are printed or saved into a centralized location or in the student’s education records.

2. D IRECTORY I NFORMATION The law also excludes “directory information” from the definition of a “pupil record.” 2082 “Directory information” includes:  Pupil’s name;  Address;  Telephone number;  Date of birth;  E-mail address;  Major field of study;  Participation in officially recognized activities and sports;  Weight and height of members of athletic teams;  Dates of attendance;  Degrees and awards received;  Most recent previous public or private school attended by the pupil. Because directory information is excluded from the definition of “pupil records,” schools generally may disclose directory information without the student’s or parents’ consent. Although many schools typically keep this information in a pupil’s cumulative file, the maintenance of this information in the cumulative file does not render the information a “pupil record” for purposes of the provisions in the Education Code limiting access to pupil records. 2083 For example, while a student’s name is kept as part of his or her pupil record, in many instances it may be disclosed to others as directory information without complying with the access restrictions governing pupil records. LCW Practice Advisor Most private schools maintain directories that are provided to families so that they may have telephone and email contact information for other school

parents. Schools should create a policy governing the release of that directory information, giving parents the opportunity to opt out of sharing their information for certain purposes without written permission. Simply because directory information is not considered a “pupil record” under the Education Code does not mean that private schools are required to release this information. On the contrary, most

An Administrator’s Guide to California Private School Law ©2019 Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 502