did you receive a letter from the Broward Country School Board? Plz read

[Guest guest]

if you received a letter from the BCSB (Broward County School Board), please do

not take it lightly!

An attorney is suing the school board on behalf of some students with the claim

that they have been deprieved of a free and appropriate education and that the

BCSB is systematic in its deniel of services to children with ASD. He has been

turned down over and over in court and is now working to gain the records of

5000 children (students and old students) in Broward County in order to show

this pattern of denial and in the hopes of gaining class certification (always

kicks up the attorney's fees). Rather then prove damages to his clients first,

he is requesting the court to force the BCSB to produce these records under few

stipulations:

1) the records will have the names redacted.

2) only the attorney, his staff (secretaries and file room clerks included),

experts, etc. will have access to these records.

3) the records will be returned or destroyed after their use.

Sounds fair?

First think of the contents of these records:

They have information on your children. They contain narrative information

recorded during meetings, counselling sessions, appeals, everything! They have

items included that you didn't request to be put there, they have items that you

put there from doctors and other specialists that you never in your wildest

dreams would have been shared for anyone for any purpose except for the benefit

of your child. They contain data on siblings and parents. Anything you gave

the school, it is in there. This record is an entity that can not and should

not be produced. It is private! Just covering the names does not protect the

privacy of our children.

Originally, Defense Counsel sent out a letter with instructions that parents

wishing to avoid the disclosure of their childrens' records needed to submit an

order called a Motion for Protective Order. Once a few of these were filed and

denied, the instructions to the parents changed. The reason for the denials is

1)you have to try to work it out with the other side before filing a motion like

this and 2) a parent cannot appear Pro Se on the behalf of their child unless

they are an attorney. In other words, you have to hire someone to write your

motion and represent your child. That means money out of the pocket of the

already financially and emotionally overtaxed purse of the family with a special

needs child.

You would think that a simple letter to the court saying you want the privacy of

your child protected would suffice in that capacity. Not quite!

Now it looks like a new letter is going to be sent out to parents with

instructions to submit complaints about this gross breach of privacy to the

school board. It almost seems like parents are being deprived of a right to due

process.

Again, please read the letters. Don't file them for later review, they have

deadlines and those deadlines don't give you near enough time to dawdle.

If you want more information, please email me at fredkutell@....

I am not an attorney, I am a parent.