A destruction notice should be sent out five years after the records cease to be of value for educational purposes.
Purging IQ Information from Student Records
According to Judge Peckham’s 1986 decision on Larry P. regarding the prohibition of IQ testing of African-American students, IQ scores from a ny other source cannot become part of the student’s school records. The California Department of Education issued a directive (Campbell, 1987) on how to dispose of Larry P. records generated prior to September 1986 as follows: Before an African-American student that is receiving special education services is re-evaluated for special education or transfers to a new district, all prior records of IQ scores, or references to information from IQ tests, should be permanently sealed. The records are to be opened only for litigation purposes, official state or federal audits, or upon parent request. The parent shall be given copies of the sealed records upon request. The sealed records shall be maintained for a period of five years. Prior to sealing the records of these students, the parents shall be notified that the records will be sealed because of a court decision which prohibits the use of intelligence tests for African-American students for any purpose related to special education. Additionally, prior to sealing the records, a qualified professional should identify appropriate data to be copied and purged of all IQ scores or references to information from IQ tests. The remaining data should then be transferred to the student's current record. In no case shall the IQ test information be made available to the IEP team for any purpose. Since the prohibition from using IQ tests with African-American students applies only to LEAs in California, it is often the case that records of African-American students received from out-of-state LEAs and/or from other agencies may contain IQ test information. Therefore, under these circumstances, the Desert/Mountain SELPA recommends that LEAs take the following steps to purge IQ information from a student record:
1. Review the case file to determine if prohibited information is contained therein, removing any prohibited protocols and all assessment reports which contain IQ information.
2. Copy the original report(s) and on the copy, extricate the following information:
a. Any reference to a test instrument which yields an IQ score or standard score that is an indication of cognitive functioning.
b. Any test data summary scores from the test instrument(s).
c. Any commentary in the report which discusses the student’s performance on the test instrument(s). 3. Make a copy of the purged report to place in the student’s records and destroy the copy that was used to extricate the information.
Chapter 1 5 – Student Records, Desert/Mountain SELPA As of 04/11/2014
Page 8
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator