City Colleges of Chicago received a Freedom of Information Act request seeking graduation-related records of its students. The colleges denied the request, claiming the records were exempt from disclosure under Section 7(1)(a) of FOIA and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which prohibits the release of personally identifiable student information.
Section 7(1)(a) of FOIA exempts from disclosure “information specifically prohibited from disclosure by federal or state law or rules and regulations implementing federal or state law.” FERPA generally prohibits recipients of federal funds from releasing personally identifiable student information without consent of the student or parent/guardian. Recipients of federal funds that violate FERPA risk losing federal funding. As a result, the requester argued that FERPA merely conditions the receipt of federal funds on compliance with the law but does not specifically prohibit the release of any information. The court found, however, that Section 7(1)(a) of FOIA operates to exempt the requested records from disclosure because FERPA was intended to protect records that contain personally identifiable student information. The court also emphasized the importance of federal funds to the colleges, such that a complete loss of federal funding for institutions that violate FERPA does amount to a “specific prohibition.”
This case confirms that personally identifiable student records are not subject to disclosure in response to a FOIA request. In addition to FERPA, public elementary and secondary educational institutions must comply with the Illinois School Student Records Act (ISSRA), which also prohibits the disclosure of school student records (with certain exceptions).
Source: Better Government Association v. City Colleges of Chicago, 2024 IL App (1st) 221414
