PTO Today

Hi all. I need some help! Our school PTO typically produces a directory that includes student names, parent names, address and phone numbers. This same directory also indicated which parents were the "Contact Parents" for the PTO. Contact Parents are used as a go-between between the teacher and parents for class parties and field trips. It also indicated who the Room Parents were. It was extremely convenient to use in sending out invitations, planning play dates, and for planning anything to do with a classroom specific events.
Today, the principal informed us that there will no longer be a directory as it violates the childrens' privacy. She stated that it is some new law, though she could not tell us if the law is local, state or federal. Even though the parents sign release forms, we cannot do it. In the past if the parent did not sign the form, we did not publish their information. This news is devastating to us.
Does anyone have any ideas as an alternative to the directory? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I was told that if the parents gave us permission to publish their information it was ok. We are in California, not sure if that matters.

WSF President

Surely the principal is mistaken. If you collected all the names&addresses outside of school, call it the "Elementary Social Club" and print up a directory, there can't be a law against it. You need to help the principal understand this, she must be mis-reading something, or maybe some parent who doesn't like the directory complained? In which case, you've got to tread carefully and not trap the principal between two parents. Are there other principals in the district you can ask? Or is someone in your group on good terms with the principal? Don't be confrontational. See if you can find out where she heard about the new law and find out more.

Hello again. Thank you for your responses. Apparently, our school board passed some "law" abolishing all directories for all schools in our district even if the parents sign the release forms!!! They are afraid the directory may get into the wrong hands and they will get sued. For what? I have no idea, we always received signed releases before publishing anyone's information. There has to be a way around it. Anyone know the law in NYS? It seems that we should be able to do this outside of school and the board will have nothing to say about it. Any thoughts?

I wouldn't recommend doing an end-run around your school board.

I would recommend talking with some of the members and seeing why they did it, maybe reviewing some of the minutes. (A couple board members, including last year's chair, are from our school -- maybe you need to get some parents to run next time.) They may actually have gotten a letter from a lawyer for something last year. If not, then you should get a few parents from the various schools to come to a meeting and request that the board reverse their policy.

I'm with gj...I wouldn't go around the principal over this. It is a relatively small thing in the big scheme of things and if the school board has passed the rule for eveyone then it'll only put you in a poor light. I did think there was a federal law that made it possible to release information to a third party for school purposes but cannot recall the law. Regardless-we've dropped doing a directory because of our population being related to so many government agencies and parents just weren't comfortable. Perhaps you could publish just an email directory for the adult parents in the classrooms that would allow email contact only (can't be traced to a home location or child name or age). May be a doable work around.
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Hello again. Thank you so much for your suggestions. I do agree with both of you. I don't want to ruffle anyone's feathers. I actually was thinking of contacting 2 of the board members as I know them from high school.
In the mean time, the email idea is a great one. At the end of last year, I did send out a form requesting email addresses so that we could streamline communication with the parents through this method. However, I only received 26 responses out of 300 students. Not very positive. But in light of the latest news, hopefully more people will send it in once they know there will not be directory. Will keep you posted.
Thank you!