tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post5331794702820625983..comments2024-03-29T02:41:52.718-07:00Comments on Seattle Schools Community Forum: Wednesday Open ThreadMelissa Westbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-70454139502435869882014-11-14T15:40:56.090-08:002014-11-14T15:40:56.090-08:00Ok fair enough. I hope to hear/read/watch somethin...Ok fair enough. I hope to hear/read/watch something with a little more substance soon. <br /><br />Tim P.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-12240176245289151132014-11-14T15:22:14.416-08:002014-11-14T15:22:14.416-08:00Tim, let it go.
NO, the district did not talk to ...Tim, let it go.<br /><br />NO, the district did not talk to her at all (I know this from both sides). <br /><br />Is it being downplayed? Yes. <br /><br />But I think what is being downplayed by the parent is that the parent who asked for the info is NOT going to reveal any of it nor spread it widely. <br /><br />Now should we all turn to the district and ask some hard questions? Yes. <br /><br />I'll have a separate thread on this soon.Melissa Westbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-9339854155266819102014-11-14T15:13:30.040-08:002014-11-14T15:13:30.040-08:00So I googled http://seattlespecialedptsa.org/about...So I googled http://seattlespecialedptsa.org/about-us/<br /><br />Found the listing of board members and noticed they have a Communications/Outreach Chair. I would have found it more natural for the Communications/Outreach Chair person to do the talking BTW I just guessing her name in not SAM,I could be wrong and in that case ignore the next line. <br /><br />It's still not clear how or why the person was on KING5 downplaying this event. Did she reach out to KING5. It just seems to me this person could have some direct relationship with the district and was contacted to do damage control. <br /><br />Tim P.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-21121032301349482312014-11-14T09:40:24.796-08:002014-11-14T09:40:24.796-08:00@Tim P.
You're making me laugh. I have to tru...@Tim P.<br /><br />You're making me laugh. I have to trust you? You, who claim you work in information security? I don't know anything about you and I certainly don't have to trust you.<br /><br />The district has asked for the DOE to investigate. The purpose of the investigation is to find out what went wrong and how to prevent it. <br /><br />Again, what is your point about having a fellow parent express her concerns? Did you expect King 5 to interview you?<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03542105149501352547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-3881737727197207112014-11-14T09:08:30.079-08:002014-11-14T09:08:30.079-08:00The person in the KING 5 report is a member of the...The person in the KING 5 report is a member of the SPED PTA board. She does not work for the district. KING 5 wanted an opinion from a parent and that's what she gave.<br /><br />Melissa Westbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-51886923115510152322014-11-14T08:16:23.061-08:002014-11-14T08:16:23.061-08:00@Griffin: what more should the District be doing? ...@Griffin: what more should the District be doing? Gee let's think about it for a second. Establishing procedures so that this doesn't happen again? Verifying where SSNs were given out over email and directly contacting THOSE families? Examining why this info was shared in the first place? <br /><br />Pu-leezeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-46387256422921923262014-11-14T08:03:46.140-08:002014-11-14T08:03:46.140-08:00Are you serious? There are 3-4 levels of informati...Are you serious? There are 3-4 levels of information security that should have prevented this.<br /><br />The law firm was the at level 4, levels 1-3 are performed by the school district. I will know more about their polices and systems soon. I work in information security, so you have to trust me when I tell you that this far from over.<br /><br />Again why would the news have a PTA member speak damage control. I wasn't that concerned before, but now I'm livid.<br /><br />Tim P.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-19058037768997480692014-11-14T07:24:35.631-08:002014-11-14T07:24:35.631-08:00@Tim P,
What is your point? What are you identif...@Tim P, <br /><br />What is your point? What are you identifying as severity? Aside from properly notifying parents via standard mail, what more should the district be doing? Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03542105149501352547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-83643986799752002162014-11-14T07:14:19.080-08:002014-11-14T07:14:19.080-08:00I saw the story on King5, who is the person trying...I saw the story on King5, who is the person trying to marginalize the severity. Does she work for the district? The report mentioned the PTA...It wasn't made clear why the PTA is involved with the leak, or why that's relevant.<br /><br /><br />Tim P. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-24842756600212441592014-11-14T00:05:50.426-08:002014-11-14T00:05:50.426-08:00Interesting. King 5 is reporting that SPS has cut ...Interesting. King 5 is reporting that SPS has cut all ties with this law firm. That would be appropriate, yet, the District's letter states that it is only taking this firm off of this particular case. Leaving the impression that the firm is free to squander public funds in some other routine contexts, just not this one. <br /><br />And let's see how many families are actually contacted concerning this matter, as evidently at least to the media this is the District's intent. Remember that there are SSN#s in some of those files. SPS must explain why these were ever given out in the first place. <br /><br />Reader <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-22808240168770345572014-11-13T23:24:22.425-08:002014-11-13T23:24:22.425-08:00King 5 covers the leak of personally identifiable ...King 5 covers the leak of personally identifiable information of students with disabilities: <a href="http://bcove.me/r19fy24f" rel="nofollow">http://bcove.me/r19fy24f</a>.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03542105149501352547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-22229105069470464042014-11-13T22:25:12.026-08:002014-11-13T22:25:12.026-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-61816794301581562302014-11-13T22:04:57.588-08:002014-11-13T22:04:57.588-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-65789617048707069732014-11-13T21:52:18.269-08:002014-11-13T21:52:18.269-08:00The US Department of Education is part of the prob...The US Department of Education is part of the problem. They are the ones that provided us with relaxed FERPA laws.Wonderfulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-86222753443652592572014-11-13T20:50:10.764-08:002014-11-13T20:50:10.764-08:00CMJ (and everyone else), this is why student data ...CMJ (and everyone else), this is why student data privacy is important to me.<br /><br />You are only as good as the person handling the data. Clearly the law firm was not doing a great job. You send out student data to any entity - law firm, non-profit , etc - and you don't know how careful anyone is. There's a lot of trust in just sending data out the door w/o truly checking for systems.<br />Melissa Westbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-43303652859157301722014-11-13T20:00:38.265-08:002014-11-13T20:00:38.265-08:00It seems like the the FERPA leaks are happening ra...It seems like the the FERPA leaks are happening rather frequently. Someone mentioned one leak with the Garfield-NatureBridge case and now there's this one. That's two rather significant FERPA leaks in a few months -- and those are just the ones that are publicly known and mentioned on this specific thread. There are probably even more that have happened in the past few months.<br /><br />So, a few questions. How many people at SPS are filling public records requests? I looked at the <a href="http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?sessionid=32090eff6b5b8f7749388e4b4d147359&pageid=211669&sessionid=32090eff6b5b8f7749388e4b4d147359" rel="nofollow">website</a> and it only lists one person. Maybe that person is the manager of the Public Records Office, not the only person working there? If it's only one person doing all the redacting for the district...that is a huge job and I'm not surprised that person occasionally makes mistakes.<br /><br />There are a few things that could be changed to fix the FERPA leak problem. I don't know all the details about, so I'm not sure what the best choice would be.<br />1. If the problem is that the staff are incompetent, replace them.<br />2. If the problem is that there simply aren't enough staff to handle all the records requests, add more staff. (I hate to recommend adding more non-teaching employees to SPS, since they're cutting/transferring teachers due to budget issues, but student privacy is important.)<br />3. If the problem is that the procedures for filing requests aren't working, then fix the procedures. Maybe requests need to go through a 2-step process where one person fills it and the other reads over it and checks for any mistakes. That would add a lot of time but hopefully solve the problem.cmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02451641218340300556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-13996558136314838042014-11-13T19:29:01.838-08:002014-11-13T19:29:01.838-08:00Nyland's letter says "Seattle Public Scho...Nyland's letter says "Seattle Public Schools is reporting the release of student information to the U.S. Department of Education and <b>is asking for their assistance</b> in investigating how this happened" [Bold mine].<br /><br />It's possible that SPS voluntarily asked the DoE for help with tracking down a FERPA (and IDEA?) violation. Still, I'm reminded of how SPS said that they <i>asked</i> the DoE to help them with their Title IX compliance issues -- after people found out that SPS was being <i>investigated</i> by the DoE for Title IX compliance problems.cmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02451641218340300556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-17956228772488209652014-11-13T19:22:31.662-08:002014-11-13T19:22:31.662-08:00It's absolutely appalling.
At least at this t...It's absolutely appalling.<br /><br />At least at this time the District seems to be trying to do the decent thing.<br />Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03535393644973542540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-20021680240611864722014-11-13T19:04:45.519-08:002014-11-13T19:04:45.519-08:00Nyland's letter = my outline = standard proced...Nyland's letter = my outline = standard procedure in these cases. When SPS stops and thinks, it can operate like a real professional organization. <br /><br />EdVoterAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-20127079926327776082014-11-13T17:43:14.561-08:002014-11-13T17:43:14.561-08:00Ah, I had a call into the law firm for a comment. ...Ah, I had a call into the law firm for a comment. Maybe the Superintendent's letter is why I didn't get a call back.<br /><br />I'm going to have to write more on this and tweet it out.<br /><br />FERPA may not be able to do much; maybe the hard,cold light of day might.Melissa Westbrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-79152059621546092872014-11-13T17:15:37.880-08:002014-11-13T17:15:37.880-08:00What that sound? It's Pandora's box openin...What that sound? It's Pandora's box opening!<br /><br /><br /><br />Ha HaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-91868542605174330202014-11-13T17:13:52.898-08:002014-11-13T17:13:52.898-08:00There you go: a decent not "business as usual...There you go: a decent not "business as usual" response from the district. Hallelujah. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03542105149501352547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-69717434873560941622014-11-13T17:11:46.516-08:002014-11-13T17:11:46.516-08:00law firm of Preg, O'Donnell and Gillet
Hello!...law firm of Preg, O'Donnell and Gillet<br /><br />Hello!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-32806282059906204842014-11-13T17:09:21.973-08:002014-11-13T17:09:21.973-08:00Dear Seattle Public Schools families,
Late Tuesda...Dear Seattle Public Schools families,<br /><br />Late Tuesday night Seattle Public Schools learned that a law firm retained by the district to handle a complaint against the district inadvertently sent personally identifiable student information to an individual involved in the case. The district promptly removed the law firm from the case and is working to ensure that all improperly released records are retrieved or destroyed.<br /><br />Protection of student privacy is of critical importance, and this inadvertent release of student information is unacceptable. Confidential information about several thousand of our students was improperly released. They are primarily Special Education students. Seattle Public Schools is reporting the release of student information to the U.S. Department of Education and is asking for their assistance in investigating how this happened.<br /><br />Seattle Public Schools is looking into the exact extent of the disclosure and will be sending follow-up communications to affected families.<br /><br />We appreciate the action of the individual who received these documents in reporting this to the district so that we could quickly move to retrieve the student information and notify families.<br /><br />Dr. Larry Nyland<br />Interim Superintendent<br /><br />posted by "midnight"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-81049971730789374522014-11-13T16:14:34.508-08:002014-11-13T16:14:34.508-08:00WOW SPS is screwed..no wonder they are doing nothi...WOW SPS is screwed..no wonder they are doing nothing to fix SPED.<br /><br />http://www.governor.wa.gov/oeo/reports/SpecialEdTaskForce%20Report_Nov2014.pdf <br /><br />Fix SPEDAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com