July 14, 2021, I published the article “Fairfax County Public Schools Breaches Privacy of Thousands of Students; FERPA Noncompliance Continues“, which details Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) failure to keep thousands of students’ privacy secure.
Although I did not request the unredacted information it provided me, FCPS provided this information in its response to a FERPA request I submitted.
I again went through the thumb drive on which that massive breach was saved and found one more breach.
The information shared errs on the benign side as it shares names of two students enrolled in a Virtual Virginia class.
However, no matter how benign the information shared is, it shouldn’t be share without the consent of the parent or student.
It makes one wonder, too, how FCPS can ever be expected to secure the privacy of its students and staff if it can’t keep even the most benign information private.
In May of this year, South County High School (SCHS) Principal Gary Morris and Due Process & Eligibility Coordinator Dawn Schaefer met with a representative of the U.S. Department of Education, Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO). Among other things, they spoke about the confidentiality breaches for which FCPS is at fault, and for which the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has repeatedly found FCPS in noncompliance.
We can only hope SPPO continues investigating FCPS until the violations stop.
The email in which the unredacted student names appeared is included below. I redacted the students’ names before posting the document.
This is related to South County High School again, so if you suspect one of the students to be your child, please contact SCHS and ask why you weren’t made aware of the breach.
Related Reading: “South County High School Breaches Student Confidentiality Again” and “FERPA Violation Report Card: Fairfax County Public Schools“
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