Andover Parent Alleges District Shared Student Records Without Consent

ANDOVER — May 24, 2018 — An Andover parent accused the district of sharing her daughter's private special education records without consent at the May 24 School Committee meeting. Teresa Sherman, who said her seventh-grade daughter has attended the Carroll School for students with dyslexia for three years, told board members she learned only at a recent placement meeting that Beverly Public Schools had already accepted her child on a "blind referral" — a transfer of information she said violated FERPA, the federal student privacy law. Sherman said she asked the district who provided the information, when it was shared, and what records were released, but received no answers. A subsequent records request to the district, she said, was met with a reply indicating the information would cost approximately $50 to obtain. Sherman, describing herself as an associate dean at Boston College and a therapist with 25 years of experience with adolescents, called on the committee to examine confidentiality practices across the entire district, not only in her daughter's case.