Documents detailing accommodations for hundreds of students with disabilities at Montgomery Blair High School were recently released on the Silver Spring school’s counseling web page, potentially giving all students and staff members access to the documents, according to screenshots of the incident provided to Bethesda Today on June 5.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) spokesperson Liliana López said in a Monday emailed statement to Bethesda Today that the district was aware of “a possible release of data” and was “proceeding in accordance with legal requirements.”
“This includes conducting a comprehensive investigation, submitting required reports to the state’s Attorney General, and providing notification to those impacted and to the wider community,” López said.
The documents posted on the counseling page, which was accessible to any student or staff member with an MCPS account, were 504 plans, which help detail accommodations for students who may have an impairment that limits their ability to perform major life activities but doesn’t impact learning; for example, a physical impairment that impacts mobility. It’s unclear how long the documents were available on the counseling web page.
According to screenshots provided to Bethesda Today dated March 21, the documents were included in a Google Drive linked on the staff resources page of the Blair counseling web page. The drive was also accessible to anyone with a link, according to the screenshots.
The drive included the first and last names of students, their student identification numbers, and their 504 plans. By April 1, the documents were taken off the website, according to emails provided to Bethesda Today. To protect student privacy, Bethesda Today will not publish the screenshots.
However, parents who shared the screenshots with Bethesda Today raised concerns that the release of the documents could have violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the federal student privacy law that generally prevents schools from releasing student information without the consent of the family or student.
According to FERPA, schools must not release personally identifiable information from students’ education records to third parties unless prior written consent is provided by the student’s parent, if the student is a minor, or by a student older than 18.
FERPA provides some exceptions, including allowing school officials to access education records if the school has determined there’s a “legitimate educational interest” in the information.
López didn’t answer when asked specifically whether the families whose students’ records were released were informed of the incident, how long the documents were available through the counseling page and Google Drive, why they were uploaded in such a fashion and what was being done to prevent similar incidents in the future.
