HCPSS MPIA Request #2018-432

Requested Information
Please provide the criteria and associated factors for overturning a denial for early enrollment into Howard County Kindergarten on parent/guardian appeal.

Also, please include the names and titles of personnel authorized to independently approve early enrollment following an initial denial.

Also, please also provide at least the three most recent separate examples (redacted as necessary) of successful written appeals for early admission.

Also, please provide details and forms of processes, waivers, or follow-on appeals options if an initial appeal is unsuccessful.
Status
Complete
Response Notes

As stated in the early admission decline letter and parent information link included below, appeals of initial denials are reviewed by the Division of School Management and Instructional Leadership – Performance, Equity, and Community Response Officers from that division and contact information can be found at: http://www.hcpss.org/contact-us/community-superintendents/.

Your request to inspect the three most recent examples of successful written appeals for early admission, as records generated by parents for a specific student and kept in individual student records, would require access to and review of private student files. 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 to anyone other than the parent/student in interest, we are denying this portion of your request.

Responsive Documents

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***Howard County Public Schools reserves the right to remove erroneous or outdated documents from this site.