Student Privacy Spotlighted in Va.

Manassas School Board, City Pay in Discrimination Suit; Policies Tightened

School officials in the City of Manassas admitted this week that they skirted federal privacy laws when they divulged personal information about a number of Hispanic students to city inspectors investigating anonymous complaints about overcrowded housing.

The 2005 disclosures -- school officials were looking for Hispanic students with different last names living at the same address -- led to late-night and often intrusive inspections. City zoning officials measured bedroom space, counted windows and electrical outlets, and quizzed occupants about their relationships to one another, according to a lawsuit filed by some of the victims.

More than 90 percent of the inspections were of Hispanic homes. Most of the inspections found no violations, City Manager Larry Hughes said.

This week, city and School Board officials agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by 11 Hispanic residents charging officials with targeting and discriminating against Hispanics. Together, the city and school system will pay $775,000 to cover plaintiff damages and attorneys' fees.

School officials apologized for the disclosure of confidential information. They said they have tightened internal policies for safeguarding private information and have begun to better educate staff members about federal privacy laws. "We've taken steps to make sure that something like this will never happen again," Superintendent Gail Pope said. "And in the future, if there's ever a question, we'll err on the side of being conservative and not release information."

The students' personal information was released with the approval of the School Board's attorney, according to the lawyer and board members. The lawyer declined to comment.

The 30-year-old law that protects students' educational information such as grades, special education status and classes allows the disclosure of such information as a student's name, phone number and address to a third party when a student has given prior consent or is aware that the system considers it public information.

The School Board maintains that "very few" students' information was turned over to city officials. The lawsuit included three plaintiffs suing the School Board over released private data. However, attorneys for the plaintiffs, the Washington Lawyers Committee, said they have evidence through Freedom of Information Act requests of many more cases. "But many people, for whatever reason, were too afraid to be part of the lawsuit," attorney Laura Varela said.

Although city officials admitted no wrongdoing, as part of the settlement they have created a new position for a bilingual housing advocate to handle discrimination complaints. An anonymous hotline to report overcrowding has been shut down. And the city will no longer send inspectors out solely on the basis of an anonymous call. Now, a caller must be an "identifiable and reliable witness" to overcrowding. And inspectors must have "credible and reliable" information to suspect a violation before knocking on anyone's door.

The hotline received thousands of complaints about overcrowding over the course of a few years, city officials said. Nearly all the complaints were about newly arrived Hispanic families, records show.

As a result of the settlement, the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have agreed to drop investigations into the city's actions.

The employee who released the information was fired in 2006.