Request By:
Ms. Rande Swann
Board of Education of Jefferson County
Van Hoose Education Center
3332 Newburg Road
Louisville, Kentucky 40218
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Cicely D. Jaracz, Assistant Attorney General
Mr. Jon L. Fleischaker, attorney, has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 on behalf of Ms. Saundra Keyes, reporter for The Courier Journal. At the Jefferson County Board of Education meeting on July 18, 1983, Superintendent Donald W. Ingwerson submitted Agenda Item V.A. to the Board pertaining to the 1982-83 CTBS (Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills), a standardized test administered to 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 10th grade students. The final paragraph of Agenda Item V.A. indicates that as of July 18, 1983 the Jefferson County schools had received from the school district class and grade reports to aid the school staffs in developing their 1983-84 plans. Ms. Keyes made a written request to inspect these class and grade reports on July 18, 1983. By letter dated August 12, 1983, you stated to Ms. Keyes that you had furnished her with all available hard copy data on the 1982-83 CTBS in the possession of the Jefferson County Poublic Schools, and would furnish more information as it became available. You also mentioned that by mid-September a computer tape will be processed, although the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 exempts some of the information from public inspection such as individual student names and individual student test scores. You also indicate that each school did receive some hard copy data on the CTBS, although you are not sure what it covered.
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
It is the opinion of the Attorney General that the class and grade statistical data of the CTBS as compiled by the Jefferson County Public Schools and released to each individual school are open to public inspection under the Kentucky Open Records law.
The class and grade statistical data are public records since they were prepared by the Jefferson County School District, a public agency. KRS 61.870(1), (2). Therefore, they are open to public inspection unless exempted by one of the provisions of KRS 61.878(1).
Ordinarily, intra-agency correspondence, such as this statistical data released by the School District to each school in the district, is exempt from public inspection pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)(h). However, the records requested to be inspected herein fall under KRS 61.878(2) which states:
No exemption in this section shall be construed to prohibit disclosure of statistical information not descriptive of any readily identifiable person.
Therefore, as long as the class and grade reports are not discriptive of any readily identifiable person, they are open to public inspection under KRS 61.878(2).
KRS 61.872 delineates the procedures to be followed by a public agency in complying with public inspection under the Open Records law. You should notify Ms. Keyes of the place, time, and date when the record will be available for inspection. If the record is no longer in your custody, the statute directs you to furnish the name and location of the custodian, if known.
As directed by statute, a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requester. Should you decide not to comply with this opinion, you may initiate further proceedings pursuant to KRS 61.880.