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Weekly UpdatesThe Massachusetts public records division has ruled against Cambridge Public Schools' $14,000 charge for public information, admonishing the school district to charge a "reasonable" rate for a list of students.
In 2007, The Cambridge Chronicle requested under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) a list of Cambridge Public School students to be used for informational purposes only. The request was denied in a letter from the school's legal department that explained the work to pull together the requested information would cost the district $14,426.88. The letter also stated the school department would be further burdened because it would have to send letters to all parents, notifying them of the Chronicle's request.
However, the Chronicle's sister paper, the Newton TAB, requested the same information from Newton Public Schools at the same time. That school department sent the data free-of-charge within three weeks of the request.
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Federal law allows schools to disclose, without consent, directory information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, and awards. However, schools must tell parents and students they are disclosing such information and allow them time to request that the school not disclose their data.
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"Once responses are received from the parents/guardians of each student enrolled in the Cambridge Public Schools, the Cambridge Public Schools has estimated it will take a total of 663 hours for the lowest-paid qualified employees at the rate of $21.76 per hour to search, segregate, and ascertain which student names are responsive and which student names are exempt from disclosure," Maureen MacFarlane of the school's legal counsel wrote in the letter.
In its decision, the state gave the school district 10 days to respond to the Chronicle but did not define "reasonable charge."
"You are hereby ordered to provide [the Chronicle] with a revised written, good-faith estimate which reflects the actual costs of providing the names of the students whose parents have consented to release of directory information," Supervisor of Public Records Alan Cote wrote in a February 12 letter.
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