Table of Contents
Information Disclosure Restrictions Overview
As per the School Act and the Student Records Regulation, a student and their parents have a ‘right of access’ to a student’s record. However, there are times when this access should be restricted or allowed. To ensure that these restrictions are effectively communicated, PASI has incorporated the concept of an Information Disclosure Restriction.
A “Disclosure Restriction” may be placed on a student’s record for those students where normal right of access should be:
- restricted and whose information must be kept confidential for a very specific reason.
- allowed because the student requires parental engagement.
PASI disclosure restrictions (formerly known as protected) are used to record details about the student’s information disclosure restrictions.
Information Disclosure Restrictions should highlight how normal access should be restricted, and ultimately guide PASI users when deciding who should have access to the student’s information.
Student’s with Information Disclosure Restrictions are not expected to be ‘hidden’ from users of a PASI Client (including PASIprep). Instead, it is required that these PASI Clients highlight Information Disclosure Restrictions to their users when the user is accessing student information.
Applying a disclosure restriction on a student in PASI has implications to how the student’s information can be accessed and/or distributed externally.
It cannot be stressed enough that information on a student that has an active disclosure restriction (of types Caution (Student Disclosure Restriction), CourtOrdered (Student Disclosure Restriction) or IndependentUnder18 (Student Disclosure Restriction)) must be kept confidential. There are potential legal and student safety implications of releasing a student’s information inappropriately.
PASI and local Student Information Systems (SIS) have mechanisms in place to help ensure that the student’s information is not released inappropriately. For example, for students with an active disclosure restriction:
- PASI will not include these student’s in search results unless specifically requested.
- PASIprep/SIS will display indicators or messages when these students are accessed, to ensure users are aware that the student’s information has an active information disclosure restriction.
Types of Information Disclosure Restrictions
The types of information disclosure restrictions that are supported by PASI are:
Type | Description | Suggested Effective Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Court Ordered | A Court Ordered restriction should be recorded when there is legal documentation supporting the restriction of the student’s information. In many cases, a separation agreement or restraining order will highlight that one of the parents should not have access to the student’s information. | Effective Start Date set to the date the court ordered restriction was effective (use the current date if not known) into PASI. Effective End Date set to the date the court ordered restriction ends (if one is known). |
| Caution | A Caution should be recorded when legal documentation is not available. This may be because legal documentation is expected and just not yet available, or because the caution doesn’t require legal documentation. Generally restrictions of this type have a duration less than 60 days. The creation of this type of Information Disclosure Restriction is at the discretion of the school principal. | Effective Start Date set to the date the restriction was added. Effective End Date left blank until the restriction is made inactive. |
| Independent Student under 18 | The school act permits a student to seek “Independent Student” status by providing supporting documentation to their school board. If granted, a parent’s right of access is removed and the responsibilities conferred to them by the School Act are placed solely upon the student. This type of disclosure restriction is used to enforce independence on the student when they are under the age of 18. A parent/guardian does not have a right to a student’s information without explicit permission from the student. | Effective Start Date set to the date the student was declared as an Independent Student. Effective End Date set to the date the student turns 18. |
| Student Over 18 With Guardian | A Student Over 18 with Guardian restriction type should be used when the student's parent/guardian retains responsibility for student after the student has turned 18 years old (for example, because the student has a mental disability and cannot take responsibility for themselves). | Effective Start Date set to the date of the student’s 18th birthday OR the current date (where the student is over 18). Effective End Date set to a date in the future from the student's 18th birthday. |
Alberta Education suggests that schools clean up any active disclosures restricts in the following way:
- During the yearly review of active information disclosure restrictions.
- Independent Student under 18 restrictions should be removed once the student turns 18. The school might want to wait until the student's current school enrolment ends just to make sure that there is not an accidental disclosure made.
- Caution restrictions should be reviewed to verify that they are appropriate to remain active once the student's school enrolment ends and the student is no longer at the school.
Examples
The following is a list of scenarios that illustrate when the restriction should be added (or not added) to PASI.
| Scenario | Comments |
|---|---|
| There is a court ordered restriction that forbids a particular parent from picking up the student from school | This is a restriction that restricts access to the physical student. There is no restriction on the student's information. This is an example of a restriction that should not be stored in PASI. |
| There is a court ordered restriction that forbids a particular parent having any contact with the student or any information about the student | This is a restriction that restricts access to the physical student as well as restricts information about the student. This is an example of a “Court Ordered” restriction that should be stored in PASI. |
| A student over the age of 18 | The student is already considered an Independent Student due to their age. There should not be any disclosure of the student's information without their permission. This is an example of a restriction that should not be stored in PASI. |
| The student has an allergy to peanuts | While the school needs to ensure they are protecting the student, this does not highlight a restriction to who can access the student’s information. This is an example of a restriction that should not be stored in PASI. |
| A student’s uncle sometimes pretends to be the student’s father in order to gain information about the student. The parents want to stop this from happening | This is a restriction of information that is not court ordered. This is an example of a “Caution” restriction that should be stored in PASI. |
Managing Information Disclosure Restrictions
Finding a Student with an Information Disclosure Restriction
By default, students with Information Disclosure Restrictions are not returned when using Identify Student to search for a student. If a student with an Information Disclosure Restriction matches the search criteria used, instead of returning the student in the search results, the service will indicate that the search matched at least one student with an Information Disclosure Restriction, but that the student was not returned. However, the response may contain information for other students that matched the search criteria.
A review of the student information returned should be conducted, and if the desired student was not returned a second call to Identify Student should be made. This second call should be made with the 'Include Students with Disclosure Restrictions' flag. This will redo the search, but this time students with Information Disclosure Restrictions are returned. Each student in the response with an Information Disclosure Restriction will be flagged as having an Information Disclosure Restriction so that systems can appropriate highlight this to a user.
How to Determine if an Information Disclosure Restriction Should be Created?
A simple test for whether a specific situation should be captured as an Information Disclosed Restriction in PASI is the following:
If a person were to come to the office and request a copy of a student’s transcript (presenting the required proof of being the student’s parent or guardian) does a situation exist that should result in the request being rejected? If so, information about the situation must be captured in an Information Disclosure Restriction to enable staff to correctly assess a parent’s request for access to their child’s student information.
In the case that a student is over the age of 18 and their parent/guardian is still responsible for them due to a disability (in severe cases where the student is unable to be responsible for themselves), a “Student Over 18 with Guardian” restriction should be applied to the student's record. Otherwise, where the student is 18 or older, the test above does not apply; once a student is 18 the School Act removes the parent’s right of access to the student’s information.
Schools may want to limit access to students who have an active Information Disclosure Restriction on file. Only those who have a relevant reason to access the student information should be reviewing it. The Principal or designate may be making decisions on who can access this students information within the school.
When is an Information Disclosure Restriction Active?
An Information Disclosure Restriction will be recognized by PASI when “Is Active” is set to “Yes”. The effective dates, regardless of the the values that they might contain, do not influence how PASI will enforce the disclosure restriction.
When Should an Information Disclosure Restriction be Removed?
An information disclosure restriction should be removed:
- When a court order has expired
- A restriction is deemed no longer applicable or the parent/guardian/student has asked you to remove it
- Based on a decision that was made during the yearly review
- When a student is no longer enrolled in your school and you have not received instructions to retain the restriction
Note: The school principal should be involved in any discussions/decisions around the removal of information disclosure restrictions.
Work Items on a Disclosure Restriction
These following work items are possible when the Disclosure Restriction is active (Is Active = True):
| Rule # | Description |
|---|---|
| Rule 11102 - Missing Information Disclosure Restriction Details | Triggered when Information Disclosure Restriction Type is 'Caution' and no Information Disclosure Restriction Details have been provided. |
| Rule 11103 - Information Disclosure Restrictions on Secondary ASN | Triggered when the Primary ASN does not have an active Information Disclosure Restriction record, but has a Secondary ASN with an active Information Disclosure Restriction record. |
| Rule 11105 - Expired Information Disclosure Restriction Status | Triggered when Expiry Date is not in the future. |
| Rule 11107 - Disclosure Restriction Status Expired 30 Days Ago | Triggered when the Expiry Date is 30 days (or more) in the past. |
| Rule 11112 - Unreasonable Disclosure Restriction effective date | Triggered when the Effective Date is more than 1 year in the future. |
| Rule 11114 - Unreasonable Disclosure Restriction Expiry date | Triggered when the Expiry Date is more than 20 years in the future. |
| Rule 11115 - Conflicting Information Disclosure Restrictions Exist | Triggered when a student has an active “Student Over 18 with Guardian” AND “Independent Student under 18” disclosure restriction. |
| Rule 11119 - Invalid Disclosure Restriction Effective Date | Triggered when the effective date of the “Student Over 18 with Guardian” disclosure restriction less than the student's 18th birthday |
Information Disclosure Restriction Impacts
Vendor Integration
When a Student Information System (SIS) vendor wishes to integrate with PASI, the PASI Team performs a conformance test of the vendor's integrated solution to ensure that it meets certain requirements. Related to Information Disclosure Restrictions, the following requirements must be satisfied by the integrated solution before the SIS can connect to PASI:
- Any functionality that calls Identify Student must adhere to the process highlight above.
- Any functionality that displays a student must ensure that Information Disclosure Restrictions are highlighted to the end user whenever student information is displayed.
- When synchronizing PASI data with SIS data changes to Information Disclosure Restrictions:
- Within PASI must be highlighted to SIS users.
- Within the SIS must be sent to PASI and the data provided must adhere to the data structures and rules established by PASI.
- May result in rejections / core alerts that must be highlighted to the SIS users and addressed in a timely fashion.
If these requirements (which are laid out in more detail in the PASI Conformance Test Guide) are not satisfied, the SIS will not be allowed to connect to PASI.
The functionality of the following PASIprep services are influenced by the presence of an Information Disclosure Restriction:
PASIprep Impacts
The following are the impacts to the functionality of PASIprep for students that have active disclosure restrictions:
- You may be prompted when searching a student with Information Disclosure Restrictions.
- Highlighting of students with Information Disclosure Restrictions in the search results.
- Highlighting of students with Information Disclosure Restrictions when viewing the student’s profile.
- Preventing the creation of the student's Detailed Academic Report when the requestor is not associated to the student.
When a student is encountered that has an active information disclosure restriction, the PASIprep user should review the restriction before disclosing any information about the student.
Note: Users who view student information will be audited.
myPass Impacts
The following are the impacts to the functionality of myPass for students that have active disclosure restrictions:
- A myPass user is not able to complete a self-service request for access to the student.
- A myPass user is not able to use an Express Access Code, due to available Student Learning Assessment results, to create a 3rd party connection.
- When a disclosure restriction is made active then any 3rd party student connections on that student are suspended and will need to be reviewed before they can be made active again.
- The student (via the Self student connection) is not able to suspend/restore other third party connections
Advanced Education Impacts
In the past, applying an Information Disclosure Restriction to a student would impact Advanced Education's ability to find the student within their systems. As of March 18th, 2016 this limitation no longer applies.