The various terms used in these regulations are defined below:

1. "Access" means inspection or copying of a student record in whole or in part.

2. "School Officials" consists of four groups:

a. School administrators, teachers and counselors who are employed by the Board of Education and who are working directly with students in an administrative, teaching, counseling and/or diagnostic capacity.

b. Other professional staff members employed by or under contract with the district to perform a special task such as an attorney, auditor, medical consultant, evaluators, psychologists, social workers, and therapists whose duties require that they have access to student records.

c. A person who is employed by the school district’s law enforcement unit.

d. Administrative office staff and clerical personnel who are employed by the Board of Education and whose duties require that they have access to student records for the purpose of processing information for student records.

e. The members of the Board of Education, the superintendent of schools, associate superintendents and assistant superintendents and their agents and representatives who are employed by the board, whose duties pursuant to the general supervision of the school system require access to student records.

3. "Directory Information" means information contained in a student record which would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. It includes, but is not limited to:

a. Student's name

b. Address

c. Telephone listing

d. Date and place of birth

e. Major field of study

f. Participation in officially recognized activities and sports

g. Weight and height of members of athletic teams

h. Dates of attendance

i. Degrees and awards received

j. The most recent previous educational agency or institution attended by the student.

4. "Disclosure" means permitting access or the release, transfer, or other communication (orally or in writing, or by electronic means, or by other means) of student records of a student or the personally identifiable information contained therein to any party.

5. "Eligible student" means any current or former student who is 18 years of age or older (or a former student, regardless of age who has enrolled in a higher education institution), unless such student is a special education student and is legally determined to be incompetent to make privacy decisions for himself or herself and for whom legal guardianship or conservatorship is required beyond the age of eighteen (18).

6. "Parent" means a student's father or mother, or guardian or an individual acting as a parent of a student in the absence of a parent or guardian. The term as used in this regulation may include a divorced or separated parent, unless school officials have been provided with clear evidence that there is a state law or court order or other legally binding document which terminates or clearly restricts the parent's rights in such a manner that such parent's access to a student's records is prohibited. The mere awarding of custody to one parent does not terminate the rights of the non-custodial parent except where the divorce decree or custody order clearly states that the non-custodial parent's rights have been terminated or that the parent has no right of access to the student's records. However, the right of access to student records accorded by this regulation does not accord the non-custodial parent the right of access to the student on school premises.

“Parent” includes a parent of a special education student who is legally determined to be incompetent to make privacy decisions for himself or herself and for whom legal guardianship or conservatorship is required beyond the age of eighteen (18).

7. "Party" means an individual, agency, institution or organization.

8. "Personally identifiable" information or data includes, but is not limited to:

a. The name of a student, the student's parents or other family member

b. The address of a student or student’s family

c. A personal identifier, such as the student's social security number or student number

d. A list of personal characteristics that would make the student’s identity easily traceable

e. Other information that would make the student’s identity easily traceable

9. “Student” means any person who is or has been in attendance in an elementary, middle or secondary school in the St. Louis Public Schools and regarding whom the St. Louis Public Schools maintain education records. The term does not include a person about whom the school system maintains information relative only to that person’s employment by the school system.

10. “Student Records” consist of all information or data recorded in any medium, (including but not limited to handwriting, print, computer media, video or audiotape, microfilm and microfiche) which relates to a student and is maintained by the St. Louis Public Schools. The term includes all such information and materials regardless of where they are located, except for:

a. Records of district personnel that are in the sole possession of the maker thereof and which are not accessible or revealed to any other person except a substitute (for example, working notes in the form of personal observations, memory aids and other similar information);

b. Records maintained by a law enforcement unit of the educational agency that were created by that law enforcement unit for the purpose of law enforcement;

c. In the case of persons employed by the district but who are not in attendance as a student, records made and maintained in the normal course of business which relate exclusively to such person in that person’s capacity as an employee and are not available for use for any other purpose; or

d. Records on a student who is eighteen years of age or older, or is attending an institution of postsecondary education, which are made or maintained by a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, or other recognized professional or paraprofessional acting in his or her professional or paraprofessional capacity, or assisting in that capacity, and which are made, maintained, or used only in connection with the provision of treatment to the student, and are not available to anyone other than persons providing such treatment, except that such records can be personally reviewed by a physician or other appropriate professional of the student’s choice.

e. Records that only contain information about an individual after he or she is no longer a student in the St. Louis Public Schools (for example, information collected pertaining to accomplishment of an alumni).

References

Legal: 20 U.S.C. § 1232g
34 C.F.R. § 99.3
State Plan for Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, As Amended by Public Law 94-142

Regulation approved: June 26, 1990

Revised: December 07, 1999

Revised: June 11, 2002