West Virginia has a plan similar to Arkansas about confidentiality that
requires a signed release of information from students before obtaining
educational records.  We have no plans to change this until there is a legal
ruling that would mandate such a change.

It is interesting that many groups have issues with their local school
system in obtaining such records.  When I worked as a literacy director, I
did not have this problem.

Pam Bryan
Special Projects Coordinator
West Virginia Adult Education and
Literacy Information Network



-----Original Message-----
From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Patti White
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 11:28 AM
To: The Learning Disabilities Discussion List
Subject: [LearningDisabilities] confidentiality in adult education

I changed the subject for my reply to you, Robin...the "out of school youth 
with ld" thing wasn't working for me anymore.

Thanks for responding, and don't panic, at least not yet.  In Arkansas, our 
adult ed and literacy programs are very careful about having the students 
sign off on release forms for any sharing of confidential information, as 
per our LD Policy requirements.

My big "uh oh, holy cow" moment came when I read Varsha's thing about the 
part of FERPA that says, "School officials with legitimate educational 
interest" may not have to do the release forms to share information.  So in 
an adult ed. program, that pretty much opens the door for leaving the 
student out of the decision-making process re: who gets to know about the 
disability?  "Well, how can they teach this student effectively if they 
don't even know the student has a learning disability?"  Maybe so, but we 
have always argued that it is still the student's decision whether or not to

share that information, even with his/her teacher.

Our LD Policy manual sure doesn't mention this part of FERPA....should it? 
What are the other states doing in their adult ed. LD policy development? 
My disabilities advisory committee is *extremely* interested in how this 
might affect the whole confidentiality section of our LD policy manual.  Do 
we add this piece in?  Do we pretend like we never heard of it?  ;)

I would really, really like to hear from some of the other states that are 
working on their adult ed. LD policies.  Thanks,
Patti White, M.Ed.
Arkansas Adult Learning Resource Center
prwhite at madisoncounty.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: robinschwarz1 at aol.com
To: learningdisabilities at nifl.gov
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: [LearningDisabilities] Out of school youth 
withlearningdisabilities


Ditto for university students with LD/other issues needing
accommodation that I worked with at a major university--and that I have
had as a teacher.   They must be the ones disclosing to schools,
requesting accommodations of the learning support at the college and
then taking the letter requesting accommodations to each
professor/instructor-- or not as the student chooses.  If they do not,
the school is helpless to do anything except recommend.   It is pretty
alarming that adult programs ask for and get all this information
without the student's permission!  Robin Schwarz,  M.Sp.Ed:LD,
Columbus, Ohio 

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