HCPSS MPIA Request #2021-025

Requestor
Ashley VanCleef
Organization/Agency
Law For Parents
Requested Information
CEPT team members have referred to the results they have seen from students placed at the High Roads Academy (Laurel location) and the Baltimore Lab School. I am requesting copies of any and all data that supports the results such as progress data, graduation rates, return to home school/lesser restrictive settings, and postsecondary outcomes for students Howard County placed in these two schools over the past three (3) years. Please also consider this a request for the number of students placed in each of these schools which have requested that they be moved to another school based on lack of progress. Lastly, I am requesting copies of any and all documents pertaining to the reading, writing, and math interventions offered as well as training Lab or High Roads Academy staff have received in Orton Gillingham methodology or Orton Gillingham based interventions.
Date Received
Status
Complete
Response Notes

Responsive to this request, specifically related to your request for documents pertaining to training Baltimore Lab School and High Roads Academy staff received in Orton Gillingham, HCPSS has no existing records responsive to this request. Such training would be provided by the non-public to their own staff, and are not records shared with HCPSS.

Lastly, related to your request for data that supports CEPT team members observations regarding results for students placed at the High Roads Academy (Laurel location) and the Baltimore Lab School, Special Education staff indicates HCPSS examines data, at least annually, for each student to determine if they are making progress and if they can be returned to a less restrictive setting. This information, however, is examined per student to make specific IEP decisions about that student and not collectively maintained data. Please note, under the MPIA process, and as advised in the Fourteenth Edition of the Maryland Public Information Act Manual created by Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General, an agency is only obligated to produce existing records and is not required to generate new data or summarize data. This information, along with information that reflects the reason a student requests to be moved based on a lack of progress, is maintained within individual student records, which would require access to and review of individual private student files, which are exempt from disclosure under both FERPA and MPIA GP § 4-313. Additional time would be needed to review and redact available data on returns to home schools.

Responsive Documents
Contains available data on number of graduates annually. Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which
restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students, we have redacted information that could reveal individual student information from the responsive record, leaving only the count of graduates by year. Staff indicates there are no records of graduates for Baltimore Lab School as the system recently began using this location.

*Some request language is summarized to include the requester's specific document requests and legally protected information (such as personally identifiable information of a student) or personal, defamatory and malicious content removed at the discretion of the school system.

**Responses containing legally protected information available only to the person of interest are omitted from the above report.

***Howard County Public Schools reserves the right to remove erroneous or outdated documents from this site.