Newport, Co. Mayo

Phone 098-41442

E-Mail newportmayo.ias@eircom.net

Access to School Records

The Education Act (1998) provides for the keeping of and access to school records. We are informed that this type of record appears to mean ‘curricular records’ only, and not ‘other educational records’ such as psychological or psychiatric records, or a ‘teacher’s record’. Even if the right of access were broadened to include ‘other educational records’, it would necessarily have to contain a number of exceptions where, for example, disclosure might militate against the welfare of the child.
Section 28(6)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 1997 permits the Minister for Education to provide for grant of a request under section 7 by a parent or guardian for right of access to their children’s records in schools. The Principal may refuse to grant access if:

Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 regulate the keeping of manual (i.e. part of a filing system/ structured set of information) and computerised personal data. The 1988 Act casts a duty on both data controllers and data processors to protect the data they keep, and imposes on them a special duty of care in relation to the individuals about whom they keep such data.  A school is required to indicate the measures (physical and technical safeguards) it has taken to protect the privacy of the individuals about whom it has information. Our school teachers protect the data they have by keeping same under lock and key in a filing cabinet. Such data is never kept on the hard-drive, but may be stored on floppy disc, for which each teacher is responsible. The Acts state that all computer-held data and any new manual records created from July 2003 should be retained for no longer than is necessary for their purpose, and we comply with this provision.
The Data Protection Commission would like schools to have a written Data Protection Policy in place which sets out the types of personal data the school gathers, the purposes for gathering it, and the persons or bodies to which they are likely to disclose it. Our school gathers personal data on pupils mainly by the completion of enrolment forms; this is for registration and administration purposes, and to help identify any special educational need of the pupil. When it is deemed necessary to get a psychological report drawn up for a pupil, it is to make provision for the child’s educational needs by diversifying the curriculum. The information gleaned from this report is disclosed only to the class teacher and resource/learning support teacher involved. 
Our staff is aware that the disclosure principle would be infringed by a teacher if s/he were to discuss personal data held by the school as a matter of gossip outside the school. However, the passing on of personal data by a data controller (e.g. BoM or Principal) to another teacher, to enable them to discharge their professional duties, would not constitute a disclosure. We are aware that an employee of the BoM (principal or teacher) may discharge contractual duties in a manner which breaches the data protection principles by (a) disclosing personal data to someone not entitled to see it, or (b) keeping data which is inaccurate, misleading, or out-of-data. If a student gains access to their file and it contains information about them which is false, an action for defamation could follow.
We are informed that, as a rule, an action is statute-barred after a certain period of time elapses; in the case of personal injuries, the time period is generally three years. A pupil does not reach the age of majority until the age of eighteen years; therefore s/he has until the twenty-first birthday the capacity to commence legal proceedings against the school. As a precaution, accident report books, roll books, annual school reports, test results, and psychological assessments should be safely stored until a pupil has reached 21st birthday.