Pupil records: privacy rights.

Existing law prohibits a school district from permitting access to pupil records to a person without written parental consent or under judicial order, except to specified persons under certain circumstances. Existing law authorizes school districts to release information from pupil records to specified persons, including appropriate persons in connection with an emergency if the knowledge of the information is necessary to protect the health or safety of a pupil or other persons; agencies or organizations in connection with the application of a pupil for, or receipt of, financial aid; county elections officials, for the purpose of identifying pupils eligible to register to vote; accrediting associations in order to carry out their accrediting functions; organizations conducting studies for, or on behalf of, educational agencies or institutions for the purpose of developing, validating, or administering predictive tests, administering student aid programs, or improving instruction; and officials and employees of private schools or school systems where the pupil is enrolled or intends to enroll, subject to specified rights of parents. This bill would additionally allow a school district to release information from pupil records to a contractor, consultant, or other party to whom a local educational agency or institution has outsourced institutional services or functions if he or she performs an institutional service or function for which the local educational agency or institution would otherwise use employees, he or she is under the direct control of the local educational agency or institution with respect to the use and maintenance of educational records, and he or she may use the information only for purposes for which the disclosure was made, and is prohibited from disclosing the information to any other party without the prior written consent of the parent or eligible pupil. The bill would require a local educational agency or institution to use reasonable methods to ensure that the contractors, consultants, or other parties to whom information from pupil records is released under this bill obtain access only to those educational records in which they have a legitimate educational interest, as prescribed.