FERPA Violation: Willow Springs Elementary School Students’ Privacy Violated

Fairfax County Public Schools' failures to secure student records continues.

While FCPS has inadvertently provided me information about dozens of other FCPS students and staff, I’m not alone in this dubious honor.

The documents below were given to another FCPS parent and include information about children other than her own—to include a list of students and their medical conditions, and a list of students who have 504 Plans. She didn’t ask to receive this information. FCPS provided it to her in the course of providing other documentation to her.

When privacy breaches occur, FCPS is supposed to contact families, but that isn’t always the case. When FCPS does take action, it usually follows a parent making it aware that he or she knows of the breach and wants to know what FCPS will be doing to address it.

The unredacted Health Conditions list shared students’ ID numbers, their classes, their grades, their gender, and their health conditions—all of which is information that leads to the identity of the child. Significantly, “Confidential” appears at the bottom. In addition, the names of two children appeared in full. I redacted personally identifiable information before posting it here.