Juneau -- The Alaska House Thursday gave unanimous approval to Senate Bill 27, legislation that guarantees parents have access to information about their children maintained by school districts and the Division of Motor Vehicles. SB 27 also requires school districts to share information with other districts about potentially dangerous transfer students.

"This legislation will help protect the rights of parents, and also the health and safety of their children," stated Senator Loren Leman (R-Anchorage), sponsor of Senate Bill 27. "This bill was introduced in response to a constituent complaint. An Anchorage woman attempted to obtain a copy of her daughter's driving record from the Division of Motor Vehicles, and was denied access because the law keeps these records confidential. This privacy protection is clearly necessary for adults, but it makes no sense in the context of the parent-child relationship. Parents must give consent before their son or daughter receives a driver's license, and then the law holds parents responsible for any damage caused by negligence or willful misconduct while their child is operating a vehicle. Yet the same law denies parents the ability to check and see if their child is driving safely."

SB 27 also includes two provisions affecting school records. The first guarantees parents the right to access their minor children's school records. This is primarily a change for clarity, to make Alaska law consistent with the national norm. Federal law requires school districts to allow parental access to school records as a condition of receiving federal funding, but state law is silent on the matter. "We are told that most school districts in Alaska have voluntarily complied with the federal standard," commented Senator Leman. "However, we believe this change will add clarity to our law and ensure that none of our schools will risk losing federal funding."

A second provision in SB 27 requires school districts to transfer information about potentially dangerous students who transfer from one district to another. If a student has committed any offense involving use of a deadly weapon, or any crime punishable as a felony, this information must be included in the record information that follows the student from one school district to another. "This requirement will help schools identify troubled students who could pose a threat to their classmates," noted Senator Leman. "The importance of this could not be more obvious in light of the recent violence at Columbine High School in Colorado."

| Top | Senator Leman's Page |