The Missouri Supreme Court is reviewing a Western District Court of Appeals decision to uphold a Cole County judge’s ruling that a Jefferson City teacher was wrongfully terminated when she transferred school data to a private account.
Tammy Ferry, an instructional technology coordinator, was embroiled in an employment discrimination claim against the school district at the time of her termination, according to media reports.
“It appears to us that in the regulatory environment concerning data security and information system security that Jefferson City, we think, was well within its rights to determine that its policy about not violating FERPA could include situations such as the one that is before the court now where a body of data is placed at risk outside the control of the district,” said Keith Powell, an attorney with the Missouri School Board’s Association (MSBA), which consists of local school board members.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records for schools that receive federal funding, according to the U.S. Department of Education website.
“We were surprised at how narrow the Court of Appeals decision was because we all, in the education space, consider data governance, data, security, and data breach issues to part and parcel of their obligation to make sure students' personal information doesn't leak out,” Powell told the St. Louis Record.
Rather than a narrow ruling, MSBA hopes the Missouri Supreme Court will include the bigger data issue when it issues its opinion.
"We think when it comes to deciding when a school board can decide someone has violated this strict policy that is meant to keep information secure, that the Court shouldn't ignore a huge piece of what's going on in that industry, which is governance and secured information," Powell said.
Missouri School Board’s Association submitted an amicus brief in Ferry v The Board of Education of the Jefferson City Public School District urging the state’s highest court to take action based on Ferry’s actions as a significant FERPA event. The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Sept. 14.
“The outcome should favor Jefferson City because they believe it was within their obligations, if not right, to consider data governance when considering whether the policy was breached,” Powell added. “What's literally at stake is this is an appeal of a termination of one teacher for violating that school district policy.”
In the amicus brief, MSBA asks the Missouri Supreme Court to consider the wider background of FERPA compliance.
"Doing so will demonstrate that the appellants acted properly in accordance with the high standards of privacy protections, implicit and known by all involved, demanded by FERPA," the brief states.