Unified Sch. Dist. No. 259 v. Disability Rights Center of Kansas, No. 06-3057 (10th Cir. 2007)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (CO, KS, NM, OK, UT, WY) has dismissed an appeal for lack of jurisdiction and has rendered the case moot after an agency voluntarily withdrew its contested records request from the school district. The mother of a disabled student contacted the Disability Rights Center ("DRC") to complain that the school district provided her child a relatively small quantity of homebound instruction. DRC began investigating whether the school district, located in Sedgwick County, KS, systematically denied educational services to disabled students in homebound placements and sought the identities of such students and their parents’ contact information to seek their authorization to access their child’s records. The school district filed a declaratory judgment action asking the federal district court to find that the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits the release of information from students’ educational records including the identity of students receiving special education services without the consent of their parents or legal guardians. DRC then withdrew its request for the students’ records and parent/guardian information. It asserted the "narrow issue" of its access to homebound information is moot, but the "broad issue" if its access to public records is not moot. The Tenth Circuit stated that the hallmark of a moot case or controversy is that the relief sought could no longer be given or was no longer needed. This case was moot because the agency currently did not burden the school district with any requests for student information, nor was the school district threatened with any adverse action based on its denials of such requests. Moreover, the agency's future requests for information will not evade review because the school district will have ample opportunity to contest the issue when it arises.
Unified Sch. Dist. No. 259 v. Disability Rights Center of Kansas, No. 06-3057 (10th Cir. 2007)
[Full opinion]
[Editor’s Note: NSBA joined an amicus brief by the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) in support of the school district, below.]
[KASB/NSBA amicus brief]