KCS - Education & Disability Law- Managing E-Records: Do’s and Don’ts for Parents of Children with Special Needs

Managing E-Records: Do’s and Don’ts for Parents of Children with Special Needs

Most parents of children with special needs are already aware of the importance - and difficulty - of keeping track of the numerous paper records associated with their child’s education. Each school year brings more IEPs, progress reports, evaluations, notices, letters and a variety of other records. On this website you will find two helpful articles by Bob Crabtree that provide guidance on how to manage your child’s paper-based educational records. But since parents today also need to make sure they are maintaining their children’s electronic records (“e-records”), we have created this list of Do’s and Don’ts to help you manage your child’s e-records just as successfully.

Do Use E-mails to Keep and Create Records. These days more and more schools are communicating with families of children with special needs via e-mail. This is good news for parents because e-mails are a great record-keeping tool – they are quick, fast, time-stamped, and can be stored easily. E-mails also capture important information about your child’s educational program. For example, teachers are using e-mails regularly to send parents reports straight from the classroom about their child’s progress, behaviors, and/or other areas of concern, and school administrators may schedule (or delay scheduling) key events such as Team meeting or observations via e-mail. These are important educational e-records – so keep them! Get in the habit now of saving all the e-mails you send and receive from the school, ideally in a separate folder within your personal e-mail account to avoid accidental deletion. If you change your e-mail address, don’t forget to print out or store electronically all education-related e-mails that were sent to your old e-mail account before you lose access to them.

E-mails are also a great documenting tool for parents in situations when they are orally promised or informed of important information about their child by school personnel, but do not have a written record of the conversation. In these cases it may be a good idea to send the relevant person in the school district a short, polite e-mail summarizing the substance of your conversation. This will document your understanding of what the school district conveyed to you orally and can help to reduce miscommunications in the future.

Parents should also know that e-mails sent or received by school employees that concern a specific student are likely part of that student’s formal Student Record under Massachusetts law. (The Student Record regulations, as well as other state and federal special education laws and regulations, can be accessed at http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs). This means that school employees should be retaining copies of any such e-mails (even when the e-mails are sent among school employees only) and that districts should ensure production of these e-mails along with the student’s other educational records upon request.

Don’t Send E-mails to School District Personnel When You are Frustrated or Angry. Consider the following hypothetical: a parent requests a Team meeting because her severely dyslexic son is not making effective progress. A week before the meeting the parent gives Team members an independent evaluation to review that confirms her son is well below grade level academically and recommends he receive a substantially more intensive program. After presenting her concerns to the Team as well as evidence of her son’s lack of progress, the parent is stunned when the school-based members of the Team inform her that they do not find the independent evaluation to be credible and that they feel the student is making good progress. The Team meeting ends with no changes being made to the student’s IEP. The parent in this situation is left feeling frustrated and angry.

As emotionally satisfying as it may be for the parent in this hypothetical to drive home and fire off an e-mail explaining in detail exactly what she thinks about each member of the Team, using angry or threatening language in an e-mail or in any other type of communication rarely causes school personnel to change their position. Further, from a legal standpoint, e-mails that personally attack school employees can easily cause more harm than good, enabling the district later to characterize the parent as uncooperative, unreasonable or even unbalanced. The bottom line is that although you need to take care of yourself emotionally and process any negative feelings you may have about the Team, you should take the high road when advocating for your child in writing. It will be much more effective in the long run.

Do Remember That Most E-mails Are Not Confidential. Parents should be aware that some communications that they believe ought to be privileged and confidential might not be treated that way under applicable law if, for example, a party to a BSEA proceeding seeks disclosure of those communications in the “discovery” phase of the litigation. Statutes protect the confidentiality of communications between attorneys and clients; patients and doctors; patients and psychotherapists; priests (or their counterparts) and penitents; spouses; and a limited number of other categories. Other communications, such as to and from a non-lawyer advocate, are not covered by legal privilege and you should be careful about both the quality and the content of any such communications. When using e-mail to communicate with one’s attorney alone, there would ordinarily be no question that the messages to and from that attorney are privileged, but before you include other persons who are neither client nor attorney (or an attorney’s employee or consultant) as a “cc” or “bcc”, you should clarify with your attorney whether the messages will still be treated as privileged.

Do Use School Websites to Stay Up to Date and to Preserve Records. More and more districts are using secure websites to communicate both general and student-specific information to parents. In some districts, parents can log on to a password-protected site to see their child’s grades, or class schedule, and even to track whether specific homework assignments have been completed. These websites can be very useful tools to help monitor your child’s progress and to stay informed. However, unlike paper records, the content of a website is always changing. This means that it is important for you print out a record of anything on the website that you see on a given day that is unusual or concerning.

Don’t Forget to Keep Your Child’s e-Records Safe and Private. Keep all log-in and password information in a secure location, and be sure to log out of any secure websites if you are using a public computer. It is also important to consider whether your personal e-mail account can be accessed by your child if you are e-mailing from home (e.g., your child knows your password, or your e-mail account is configured so that you are not prompted to login but rather are directed straight to your inbox). If you are exchanging sensitive information over e-mail with the district that you do not feel is in your child’s best interest to read, then protect your e-mail account by regularly changing your password (using a combination of letters and numbers that cannot be easily guessed) and ensuring that your home computer settings require you to login each time you access your e-mail.

You should also be aware that employers in Massachusetts generally have the right to review the content of any e-mails sent and received by employees through their work accounts. Therefore we recommend that parents not use work e-mail accounts when communicating about their child’s educational needs, medical status, educational records, or when e-mailing an attorney. The easiest way to avoid any potential privacy and confidentiality concerns is to review and comply with your employer’s internet use policy and always to use your personal e-mail account when discussing your child’s educational needs.

Do Be Aware of Cyber-Bullying and Do Review Your Child’s Text Messages, Instant Messages, and Social Networking Sites When Appropriate. We know that cyber-bullying is extremely common among kids today, and that the consequences for students who are relentlessly tormented by their peers over the internet can be tragic. We also know that students with special needs are particularly vulnerable to being bullied (and sometimes to acting as bullies), whether in the school yard or over the internet. Parents need to take affirmative steps to educate themselves about how their children are using the internet and what sites they are visiting. If you know that your child is the target of a cyber-bully you should notify the school promptly and document the cyber-bullying behavior. Cyber-bullies may be reaching your child through Facebook “posts,” Twitter “tweets”, instant messages (referred to “IMs”), or through other sites. Be sure to print out anything that you see that is inappropriate so that you have a record of the bullying behavior. If your child is being bullied by text messages, call your cell phone provider and request printouts of all text messages sent and received from your child’s cell phone for your records.

Parents should also be aware that under the newly enacted Massachusetts Anti-Bullying Law, it is incumbent upon the Team of any student who has been identified with a disability that affects social skills development or who is vulnerable to bullying, harassment or teasing because of his or her disability to determine the “skills and proficiencies needed to avoid and respond to bullying, harassment or teasing” and to amend the student’s IEP accordingly. In other words, if your child is being bullied due to his or her disability, you should let the Team know promptly and ask for the Team to reconvene. The Team should determine whether any changes need to be made to your child’s IEP to help protect against acts of cyber or physical bullying.

Don’t Forget that Social Networking Sites are Not Private. Many popular social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, allow users to post pictures, links and comments for selected friends and family to see. It is not uncommon for children, teenagers, parents and even grandparents to have Facebook pages that reveal personal information and allow visitors access to photos. Even though users can adjust privacy settings, always remember that nothingposted on a social networking site is guaranteed to remain private. Do not post anything that you would be embarrassed by if someone at your child’s school saw it (e.g., a Facebook status reflecting your feelings about the Team Chair). Of course, you should also be aware what information your child is sharing over the internet and with whom.

Parents of children with special needs face unique challenges in the internet age. The good news is that tools such as e-mail and school websites can help make managing your child’s educational records much easier. Educating yourself about social networking sites and engaging your child in discussions about safe and appropriate use of the internet will also help prevent or limit the harm that a cyber-bully (or others) can cause. By taking these steps you will have gone a long way toward successfully managing your child’s e-records. It is not an easy task, but you can do it!

K O T I N, C R A B T R E E & S T R O N G, L L P
One Bowdoin Square
Boston, Massachusetts 02114-2925
Voice: 617-227-7031
Facsimile: 617-367-2988
Email:


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Business Law Education and Disability Law Employment Law Estate Planning and Administration Intellectual Property Law Litigation Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice Real Estate Law Tax Law		Managing E-Records: Do’s and Don’ts for Parents of Children with Special Needs Most parents of children with special needs are already aware of the importance - and difficulty - of keeping track of the numerous paper records associated with their child’s education. Each school year brings more IEPs, progress reports, evaluations, notices, letters and a variety of other records. On this website you will find two helpful articles by Bob Crabtree that provide guidance on how to manage your child’s paper-based educational records. But since parents today also need to make sure they are maintaining their children’s electronic records (“e-records”), we have created this list of Do’s and Don’ts to help you manage your child’s e-records just as successfully. Do Use E-mails to Keep and Create Records. These days more and more schools are communicating with families of children with special needs via e-mail. This is good news for parents because e-mails are a great record-keeping tool – they are quick, fast, time-stamped, and can be stored easily. E-mails also capture important information about your child’s educational program. For example, teachers are using e-mails regularly to send parents reports straight from the classroom about their child’s progress, behaviors, and/or other areas of concern, and school administrators may schedule (or delay scheduling) key events such as Team meeting or observations via e-mail. These are important educational e-records – so keep them! Get in the habit now of saving all the e-mails you send and receive from the school, ideally in a separate folder within your personal e-mail account to avoid accidental deletion. If you change your e-mail address, don’t forget to print out or store electronically all education-related e-mails that were sent to your old e-mail account before you lose access to them. E-mails are also a great documenting tool for parents in situations when they are orally promised or informed of important information about their child by school personnel, but do not have a written record of the conversation. In these cases it may be a good idea to send the relevant person in the school district a short, polite e-mail summarizing the substance of your conversation. This will document your understanding of what the school district conveyed to you orally and can help to reduce miscommunications in the future. Parents should also know that e-mails sent or received by school employees that concern a specific student are likely part of that student’s formal Student Record under Massachusetts law. (The Student Record regulations, as well as other state and federal special education laws and regulations, can be accessed at http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs). This means that school employees should be retaining copies of any such e-mails (even when the e-mails are sent among school employees only) and that districts should ensure production of these e-mails along with the student’s other educational records upon request. Don’t Send E-mails to School District Personnel When You are Frustrated or Angry. Consider the following hypothetical: a parent requests a Team meeting because her severely dyslexic son is not making effective progress. A week before the meeting the parent gives Team members an independent evaluation to review that confirms her son is well below grade level academically and recommends he receive a substantially more intensive program. After presenting her concerns to the Team as well as evidence of her son’s lack of progress, the parent is stunned when the school-based members of the Team inform her that they do not find the independent evaluation to be credible and that they feel the student is making good progress. The Team meeting ends with no changes being made to the student’s IEP. The parent in this situation is left feeling frustrated and angry. As emotionally satisfying as it may be for the parent in this hypothetical to drive home and fire off an e-mail explaining in detail exactly what she thinks about each member of the Team, using angry or threatening language in an e-mail or in any other type of communication rarely causes school personnel to change their position. Further, from a legal standpoint, e-mails that personally attack school employees can easily cause more harm than good, enabling the district later to characterize the parent as uncooperative, unreasonable or even unbalanced. The bottom line is that although you need to take care of yourself emotionally and process any negative feelings you may have about the Team, you should take the high road when advocating for your child in writing. It will be much more effective in the long run. Do Remember That Most E-mails Are Not Confidential. Parents should be aware that some communications that they believe ought to be privileged and confidential might not be treated that way under applicable law if, for example, a party to a BSEA proceeding seeks disclosure of those communications in the “discovery” phase of the litigation. Statutes protect the confidentiality of communications between attorneys and clients; patients and doctors; patients and psychotherapists; priests (or their counterparts) and penitents; spouses; and a limited number of other categories. Other communications, such as to and from a non-lawyer advocate, are not covered by legal privilege and you should be careful about both the quality and the content of any such communications. When using e-mail to communicate with one’s attorney alone, there would ordinarily be no question that the messages to and from that attorney are privileged, but before you include other persons who are neither client nor attorney (or an attorney’s employee or consultant) as a “cc” or “bcc”, you should clarify with your attorney whether the messages will still be treated as privileged. Do Use School Websites to Stay Up to Date and to Preserve Records. More and more districts are using secure websites to communicate both general and student-specific information to parents. In some districts, parents can log on to a password-protected site to see their child’s grades, or class schedule, and even to track whether specific homework assignments have been completed. These websites can be very useful tools to help monitor your child’s progress and to stay informed. However, unlike paper records, the content of a website is always changing. This means that it is important for you print out a record of anything on the website that you see on a given day that is unusual or concerning. Don’t Forget to Keep Your Child’s e-Records Safe and Private. Keep all log-in and password information in a secure location, and be sure to log out of any secure websites if you are using a public computer. It is also important to consider whether your personal e-mail account can be accessed by your child if you are e-mailing from home (e.g., your child knows your password, or your e-mail account is configured so that you are not prompted to login but rather are directed straight to your inbox). If you are exchanging sensitive information over e-mail with the district that you do not feel is in your child’s best interest to read, then protect your e-mail account by regularly changing your password (using a combination of letters and numbers that cannot be easily guessed) and ensuring that your home computer settings require you to login each time you access your e-mail. You should also be aware that employers in Massachusetts generally have the right to review the content of any e-mails sent and received by employees through their work accounts. Therefore we recommend that parents not use work e-mail accounts when communicating about their child’s educational needs, medical status, educational records, or when e-mailing an attorney. The easiest way to avoid any potential privacy and confidentiality concerns is to review and comply with your employer’s internet use policy and always to use your personal e-mail account when discussing your child’s educational needs. Do Be Aware of Cyber-Bullying and Do Review Your Child’s Text Messages, Instant Messages, and Social Networking Sites When Appropriate. We know that cyber-bullying is extremely common among kids today, and that the consequences for students who are relentlessly tormented by their peers over the internet can be tragic. We also know that students with special needs are particularly vulnerable to being bullied (and sometimes to acting as bullies), whether in the school yard or over the internet. Parents need to take affirmative steps to educate themselves about how their children are using the internet and what sites they are visiting. If you know that your child is the target of a cyber-bully you should notify the school promptly and document the cyber-bullying behavior. Cyber-bullies may be reaching your child through Facebook “posts,” Twitter “tweets”, instant messages (referred to “IMs”), or through other sites. Be sure to print out anything that you see that is inappropriate so that you have a record of the bullying behavior. If your child is being bullied by text messages, call your cell phone provider and request printouts of all text messages sent and received from your child’s cell phone for your records. Parents should also be aware that under the newly enacted Massachusetts Anti-Bullying Law, it is incumbent upon the Team of any student who has been identified with a disability that affects social skills development or who is vulnerable to bullying, harassment or teasing because of his or her disability to determine the “skills and proficiencies needed to avoid and respond to bullying, harassment or teasing” and to amend the student’s IEP accordingly. In other words, if your child is being bullied due to his or her disability, you should let the Team know promptly and ask for the Team to reconvene. The Team should determine whether any changes need to be made to your child’s IEP to help protect against acts of cyber or physical bullying. Don’t Forget that Social Networking Sites are Not Private. Many popular social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, allow users to post pictures, links and comments for selected friends and family to see. It is not uncommon for children, teenagers, parents and even grandparents to have Facebook pages that reveal personal information and allow visitors access to photos. Even though users can adjust privacy settings, always remember that nothingposted on a social networking site is guaranteed to remain private. Do not post anything that you would be embarrassed by if someone at your child’s school saw it (e.g., a Facebook status reflecting your feelings about the Team Chair). Of course, you should also be aware what information your child is sharing over the internet and with whom. Parents of children with special needs face unique challenges in the internet age. The good news is that tools such as e-mail and school websites can help make managing your child’s educational records much easier. Educating yourself about social networking sites and engaging your child in discussions about safe and appropriate use of the internet will also help prevent or limit the harm that a cyber-bully (or others) can cause. By taking these steps you will have gone a long way toward successfully managing your child’s e-records. It is not an easy task, but you can do it! K O T I N, C R A B T R E E & S T R O N G, L L P One Bowdoin Square Boston, Massachusetts 02114-2925 Voice: 617-227-7031 Facsimile: 617-367-2988 Email:
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