Florida Department of Education v. Cooper, No. 02-4040 (Fla. App. November 6, 2003)
A Florida appellate court has overruled a trial court decision granting the legal guardian of a student who failed the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT) “meaningful access” to test booklets and questions. The appellate court rejected the lower court’s ruling that test instruments are “student records” within the meaning of Florida’s Student Records Law. First, after reviewing the law’s statutory language, the appellate court concluded that the plain language of the section addressing tests was limited to providing access to test scores because, while the text refers to “test scores” several times, it is conspicuously silent regarding test instruments. Second, the lower court’s decision to restrict the guardian’s access to “meaningful” review—supervised review limiting the time test instruments are available and prohibiting copying—was an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the liberal access available to student records under the state education code with the confidentiality and test security provisions of the code that seek to protect the integrity of the testing process. The appellate court concluded that documents could not on the one hand be classified “students records” while, on the other hand, access to the documents was to be restricted because of testing confidentiality and security concerns. Because the FCAT instruments are not “student records,” the guardian was not entitled to any type of access to them.
Florida Department of Education v. Cooper, No. 02-4040 (Fla. App. November 6, 2003)
Full opinion: http://www.1dca.org/opinion/opinions2003/11-06-03/02-4040.pdf