State Sen. Paul Harris, ranking Republican member on the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, issued the following statement regarding the retention of student records by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. A Seattle Times story published today revealed OSPI policy doesn’t require public records of Special Education Community Complaint decisions to be held longer than six years.
“It is unacceptable that OSPI does not place more importance on retaining records related to complaints, especially those dealing with special-education students. Parents and advocates for these students should be able to access such records upon request. A policy that allows these records to be deleted after only six years hampers efforts by parents and advocates to improve the special-education system for students. If OSPI and Washington State Archives fail to fix this soon, the Legislature should step in to ensure the record-retention policy meets the needs of parents and special-education advocates.”
Harris, R-Vancouver, serves the 17th Legislative District.