School District's Gathering Information on Parents

School district's frequently surprise me with the depth and scope of knowledge that they have on parents.  A typical first conversation I have with opposing counsel goes something like: "are you aware of the fact that the parents are on the verge of divorce, mother takes valium and they are nearing foreclosure, so I am concerned that any settlement we enter into will not be viable because of residency issues!" Quite remarkable and far beyond information that should ever be within the ambit of a social developmental study, but this type of information comes to me on a regular basis.

So I am left to wonder how does this information come to the attention of the school district and more specifically the special education director and in turn their attorney. One obvious source is through the case study specifically the usually ordinary social developmental study (SDS), where  the "friendly social worker" has just a "few questions for you." One attorney told me point blank that the mother had suffered from mental illness since childhood as shown in the SDS, so therefore she was "nuts," which explained the students struggles in school. To misuse information like this is quite unethical but probably not actionable, since the attorney has a legitimate interest in seeing the student's records, albeit not apply it in this manner.

More pernicious types of information gathering come from what I call "educational  advocacy redlining". That is parents in certain parts of town where the land values are known to be lower simply will not have the resources to fight back. This information is known to the school because of taxing and financing, but was never meant to be used in this way.  The look of surprise on the sped director's face is a true pleasure for me, when I represent a parent from one of these redlined zones.

Finally, the most common ways that schools gather information is from chatty parents who unfortunately feel too comfortable in emails or chats with school personnel and reveal all kinds of information.  Not to be paranoid but what you say to the teacher, therapist, social worker or other school personnel, should be considered to be fair game to be passed around to everyone on the team and in the building and even beyond. Additonally, there is the now well publicized information gathering through webcams on school laptops in the home. For now this level of surveillance is probably a lesser risk given the popular uproar and private and public suits over this issue.

What to do to avoid to having your own information used against you:

• guard what you say in social media such as Twitter and Facebook. School personnel are tuned into social media, and if you are "parent enemy number one" they will look;
• be very aware of how and what you tell school personnel at all times. They may be friendly and even a friend, but that does not mean they are not receiving pressure to divulge information;
• on a SDS give needed information but it is not necessary to make a full confession about collateral relatives or matters that are not clearly germane to your child's IEP.
• use social media and other online and legal avenues to gather information about school personnel, if needed, to level the field. Use search engines like social mention to see if there is anything about you or about them on Facebook, Twitter and other sites and services. I am not by any means recommending a full out campaign of tit for tat or full scale paranoia;
• use your right to see your child's students records to zero in on email traffic at school about you or your child which are student records. Frequently school personnel will write unfortunate things on the school server or their home computer about parents or students, not realizing that they are creating damning student records. Several of my opposing counsels, who represent schools, have told me that this a big problem; they in-serviced staff on exercising care in use of email but a near total lack of awareness persists.

Exercise caution in how information is shared with school personnel. Emails that are sent in a moment of haste and anger can destroy what would otherwise be a legitimate claim.  School personnel are tuned into the power of information about parents, so be careful but not paranoid.

 

 

Comments

[Susan Montgomery]

Wow. This blog was amazing. I wish I would of read it months ago..or even years. But yet I never thought I would endure such BS with my son IEP team, etc. I am one of those ppl the Social worker befriends. Due to my own disability, and honesty I got real chatty once when talking and didnt realize it was going to be held against us. Although I dont think being a victim of a crime is bad (cuz it wasnt my fault) and being a single mom in the hood is illegal (at least I take care of my kids) but they make your kid out to be the worse when they are wrong because he is just another black boy with a dad in jail and the mom has ptsd and probably has alot of stress and is on meds. So I have been fighting them off for a while. I turned into an advocate/activist for my son, my self and my community and I hate what they have put us through or how they judge and stereo type families. My son deserves the same things as other kids do. And I am sick of them putting me down like I am stupid at the meetings or ignoring me. After they wouldnt listen to my concern of my son being abused my staff and students in his SPEN program I filed a complaint with the state dept, pulling my son out and awaiting the next step. In the mean time they send me truancy warnings yet they wont give him new and better services somewhere else and keep cancel the IEP meetings. I have saved all my emails and took pictures. And hopefully this law student can help with a complaince before she graduates becaus I can not afford a lawyer. And I really want what is best and right for not only my son but the other kids that are ignored in this level 3 setting. If I would of known then what I know now, I swear, I would of never even signed my name to that IEP propasal. Thanks for letting me vent. I look foward to reading more blogs and I promise not to leave a novel every time. lol.