L.R. VS. CHERRY HILL BOARD OF EDUCATION, ET AL. (L-5609-11, CAMDEN COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (A-1819-20)
Plaintiff L.R. is the mother of a disabled student attending the Camden City Public Schools. She served defendant Cherry Hill Board of Education and its record custodian with an Open Public Records Act (OPRA), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 to -17, request for all settlement agreements from all lawsuits in which defendant was sued by a student and/or their parent. The request asked defendant to redact the parent and student names leaving only their initials. Defendant produced the documents sought but redacted all personally identifiable information (PII), including initials.
Plaintiff appealed. Following the decisions in L.R. v. Camden City Public School District (L.R. I), 452 N.J. Super. 56 (App. Div. 2017), and L.R. v. Camden City Public School District (L.R. II), 238 N.J. 547 (2019), the trial judge dismissed the complaint finding plaintiff was not entitled to the initials because she: (1) Was not authorized to obtain the information by means of a court order; and (2) lacked a common law right of access to student records because defendant had a legitimate claim of confidentiality under the Family Educational Records and Privacy Act, 20 U.S.C. 1232g, and the New Jersey Pupil Records Act, N.J.S.A. 18A:36-19.
Following this appeal, the Department of Education promulgated new regulations governing public access to student records under OPRA in response to L.R. II. The regulations define PII and student records that may be released pursuant to a court order provided the records do not contain any PII. N.J.A.C. 6A:32-2.1. They also state student "records removed of all [PII]" may be released without consent. N.J.A.C. 6A:32-7.5(g)(1).
On appeal, the court affirmed, holding the new regulations were not retroactive, and even if they were defendant's redaction of the initials was consistent with the regulations and the trial judge's ruling that plaintiff was not entitled to unredacted records. The court held plaintiff's reliance on Keddie v. Rutgers, 148 N.J. 36, 40 (1997), establishing the public's common law right to records, and C.E. v. Elizabeth Public School District, 472 N.J. Super. 253 (App. Div. 2022), establishing the right to settlements entered before the Office of Administrative Law under OPRA, were inapposite because those cases involved the failure to produce documents not whether a defendant should have redacted the PII altogether.
