Public schools may release student information such as honor rolls, rosters

The ability of parents and grandparents to collect scrapbook materials from their local newspapers remains in place despite legislation that appeared to threaten the release of student information.
St. Landry Parish public schools will continue to release information such as honor rolls and sports rosters, Superintendent Edward Brown said. Newspaper photographers will continue to be able to take photos of students and collect their names for cutlines under the photos.
“At first it was said that we couldn’t release any information,” Brown said, but subsequent decisions have allowed business as usual in regard to student information.
“We are also going to offer parents the opportunity to deny, but they are going to have to sign off on it,” Brown said.
Brown said he thought it would be rare for parents to deny the release to the public of information such as honor rolls, sports rosters or other accomplishments.
Some thought that information was about to become off-limits for educators to release to the public.
Recently, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell issued an opinion supporting the ability of newspapers to cover school news. He agreed that a broad-based interpretation of the new law will allow newspapers to continue coverage in the manner they historically have, the Louisiana Press Assocation stated in a notice to its members.
New, however, is the fact that to comply local school boards must adopt a policy, the press association stated.
The St. Landry Parish School Board approved a policy at its Aug. 6 meeting.
The serious threat to the ability of newspapers to cover school news and sporting events came to light when LPA began fielding calls from member newspapers regarding concerns with Act 228, also known as House Bill 718 by John Schroder, R-Covington, which passed in the 2015 session. The concern surrounded whether or not public schools could continue to release football rosters, honor rolls, or any personally identifying information of their enrolled students. The legislative history of this bill would show that Rep. Schroder’s intent was to clear up these issues, not make them more prevalent, the association stated.