1. Generally
Questionnaires and surveys shall not be administered to public school students during the regular school day or at school-sponsored events without written, informed consent when participation in such questionnaire or survey may subsequently result in the sale for commercial purposes of personal information regarding the individual student.
a. Inspection of Instructional Materials by Parents or Guardians
i. Federal law requires that all instructional materials, including teacher’s manuals, films, tapes, or other supplementary material, which will be used in connection with any survey, analysis, or evaluation as part of any applicable federal program be made available for inspection by the parents or guardians of students. The Montgomery County School Board shall make any and all such instructional materials available for inspection by parents or guardians as are described in this Policy.
ii. Procedure for requesting opportunity to inspect instructional materials. Parents or guardians of Montgomery County Public Schools students who want to inspect any such instructional materials should submit to the principal or his or her designee of the school that their student attends, a written request to inspect. The written request should describe in as much detail as possible the instructional materials that the parents or guardians wish to inspect. Parents may make their request to inspect instructional materials verbally; however, the School Board recommends that requests to inspect instructional materials be submitted in writing, where possible, to avoid any misunderstanding regarding the requests. Upon receiving requests to review instructional materials, the principal or his or her designee shall consult with the requesting parents and schedule a mutually agreeable time for the parents to review the requested materials at the school. Such review shall be scheduled within a reasonable amount of time following the receipt by the principal or his or her designee of the request, but affording the school administration sufficient time to gather the requested materials.
b. Participation in Surveys and
Evaluations
No Montgomery County Public Schools student shall be required, as part of any federally funded program, to submit to a survey, analysis, or evaluation that reveals information concerning any of the following topics:
i. political affiliations or beliefs of the student or the student’s parent;
ii. mental or psychological problems of the student or the student’s family;
iii. sex behavior or attitudes;
iv. illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior;
v. critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents/students have close family relationships;
vi. legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers;
vii. religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs of the student or student’s parent; or
viii. income (other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under such program), without the prior consent of the student (if the student is an adult or emancipated minor), or in the case of an unemancipated minor, without the prior written consent of the student’s parent.
In addition to those rights listed above, Montgomery County Public Schools students and their parents enjoy the following rights and protections:
i. Right to Inspect Surveys. Parents of students have the right to inspect, after making a request to do so to the appropriate school officials, any survey created by a third party as part of a federally funded program before the survey is administered or distributed by any Montgomery County Public School to their students. Parents requesting the opportunity to inspect any such survey shall be granted access to the survey instrument within a reasonable period of time following the parents’ request. Parents should follow the procedure described in Section 2(a)(ii), above, to request an inspection of surveys.
ii. Arrangements to Protect Student Privacy. In the event that any Montgomery County Public School administers or distributes to students a survey containing one or more of the topics listed in Section 2(b) of this Policy, the School shall take the following precautions to protect the privacy of any student completing any such survey:
(a) Where appropriate, such surveys shall be administered/distributed anonymously, so that students completing the surveys cannot be identified by their responses.
(b) School officials administering surveys subject to this Policy shall inform students before administering the survey that the students are not required to complete the survey. School officials shall also inform students that if they choose to complete the survey their responses shall be reviewed only by persons who are employed by the Montgomery County Public Schools and/or by the developer/provider of the survey instrument.
(c) During the completion of surveys by students, teachers, guidance counselors and/or other school administrators who are administering the surveys, shall not review surveys as students are completing them. Preferably, the school officials will pass out the surveys and collect them from the front of the room in which they are being completed, so that no school official can identify any students’ responses.
(d) School officials, including teachers, guidance counselors, and/or school administrators, shall collect completed surveys separately from any and all other materials collected from students. The completed surveys shall be maintained in separate files related solely to the administration/distribution of the subject survey, and shall not be maintained in students' individual student records.
iii. Inspection of Instructional Materials. In addition to the right to inspect instructional materials described in Section 2(a) of this Policy, parents of Montgomery County Public Schools students, after making a request to the appropriate school officials, may inspect any instructional material used as part of the educational curriculum for their students. Parents requesting the opportunity to inspect any such instructional materials shall be granted access to the materials within a reasonable period of time following the parents’ request. Parents should follow the procedure described in Section 2(a)(ii) above, to request an inspection of instructional materials.
iv. Physical Examinations and Screenings. The Montgomery County Public Schools administer physical examinations and screenings required by applicable Virginia law and the Individual with Disabilities Education Act. In addition, the Montgomery County Public Schools from time-to-time administer physical examinations or screenings not required by law but to assist families (e.g., heights and weights for students at ages not otherwise required by law). In such instances, parents are notified and provided the opportunities to opt-out of such examinations. The Montgomery County School Board shall involve parents in any revision to this or other Policies requiring the administration of physical examinations or screenings of students other than those required by applicable Virginia law or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
v. Commercial Use of Information. The Montgomery County Public Schools do not administer to students any questionnaires or surveys under federally funded programs that result in the sale for commercial purposes of personal information regarding individual students or provide personal information to third parties for such purposes. This subsection 2(c)(v) does not apply to the collection, disclosure, or use of personal information collected from students for the exclusive purpose of developing, evaluating, or providing educational products or services for, or to, students or educational institutions, such as the following:
(a) college or other postsecondary education recruitment, or military recruitment;
(b) book clubs, magazines, and programs providing access to low-cost literary products;
(c) curriculum and instructional materials used by elementary schools and secondary schools;
(d) tests and assessments used by elementary schools and secondary schools to provide cognitive, evaluative, diagnostic, clinical, aptitude, or achievement information about students (or to generate other statistically useful data for the purpose of securing such tests and assessments) and the subsequent analysis and public release of the aggregate data from such tests and assessments;
(e) the sale by students of products or services to raise funds for school-related or education-related activities; and
(f) student recognition programs.
vi. In
any case in which a questionnaire or survey requesting sexual information of students is to be
administered, the School Board shall notify the parent concerning the
administration of such questionnaire or survey in writing not less than
30 days prior to its administration.
The notice shall inform the parent regarding the nature
and types of questions included in the questionnaire or survey,
the purposes and age- appropriateness of the survey, and whether and how
any findings or results will be disclosed. Parents shall have the right to review the questionnaire or survey and to
exempt their child from participating in the survey, as provided elsewhere
in this Policy. However, no questionnaire or survey
requesting sexual information of a student shall be administered to any student in kindergarten
through grade six and, unless required by federal or state law or
regulation, school personnel administering any such
questionnaire or survey shall not disclose personally identifiable information.
Parents (or emancipated students for themselves) may opt their students out of participating in any of the following:
i. activities involving the collection, disclosure, or use of personal information collected from students for the purpose of marketing or for selling that information (or otherwise providing that information to others for that purpose), as discussed in Section 2(c)(v), above;
ii. the administration of any survey containing one or more of the items listed in Section 2(b), above; or
iii. any non-emergency, invasive physical examination or screening as described in Section 2(c)(iv), above, that is:
(a) required as a condition for attendance at any Montgomery County Public School;
(b) administered by any Montgomery County Public School and scheduled by the school in advance; and
(c) NOT necessary to protect the immediate health and safety of the student or of other students.
i. Notification of Policies. The Montgomery County School Board shall provide notice of this Policy directly to parents of students annually at the beginning of each school year and within a reasonable period of time after any substantive change in the Policy.
ii. Notification of Specific Events. The Montgomery County School Board shall notify directly the parents of students, at least annually at the beginning of each academic year, regarding the specific or approximate dates during the school year when the following under federally funded programs are scheduled, or expected to be scheduled:
(a) activities involving the collection, disclosure, or use of personal information collected from students for the purpose of marketing or for selling that information (or otherwise providing that information to others for that purpose), as discussed in Section 2(c)(v), above;
(b) the administration of any survey containing one or more of the items listed in Section 2(b) above; or
(c) any non-emergency, invasive physical examination or screening as described in Section 2(c)(iv), above, that is:
(i) required as a condition for attendance at any Montgomery County Public School;
(ii) administered by any Montgomery County Public School and scheduled by the school in advance; AND
(iii) NOT necessary to protect the immediate health and safety of the student or of other students.
f. Definitions
As used in this Policy, the following terms have the meanings provided below.
i. Instructional material: means instructional content that is provided to a student, regardless of its format, including printed or representational materials, audio-visual materials, and materials in electronic or digital formats (such as materials accessible through the Internet). The term does not include academic tests or academic assessments.
ii. Invasive physical examination: means any medical examination that involves the exposure of private body parts, or any act during such examination that includes incision, insertion, or injection into the body, but does not include a hearing, vision or scoliosis screening.
iii. Parent: includes a legal guardian or other person standing in loco parentis (such as a grandparent or stepparent with whom the child lives, or a person who is legally responsible for the welfare of the child.)
iv. Personal information. Means individually identifiable information, including (1) a student’s or parent’s first and last name; (2) a home or other physical address (including street name and the name of the city or town); (3) a telephone number; or (4) a Social Security identification number.
v. Survey: the term includes an evaluation.
g. Policy
Adoption and Revision
The Montgomery County School Board adopted this Policy following consultation with parents of Montgomery County Public Schools students. The School Board shall make any amendment or revision to this Policy only after consultation with parents of Montgomery County Public Schools students.
LEGAL REFERENCE: 20 U.S.C. §1232h; 34 C.F.R. Part 98; Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, §22.1-79.3.
Adopted:
April 2004
Revised: September 2006