Danielle Dell

Dawn Jacobson
EDLD 6650 – Juengert

Rim of the World Unified School District v

Superior Court of the County of San Bernardino (2003)

FACTS: In 2002, Larry Komar made a request to the Rim of the World USD under the
California Public Records Act (Gov. Code §6250 et seq.) “to review all documents pertaining to
any and all suspensions over three days, and all expulsions acted on by the District during the
period January 1, 1998, through the present.” The District denied the request on the basis that the
documents were school documents and access to them by the public would be an invasion of
students’ privacy under Gov. Code §6254, and offered to provide Komar statistical data. Komar
countered that under Education Code §48918, “records of expulsions shall be a non-privileged,
disclosable public record.” The District again denied Komar’s request, he sued for access in the
San Bernardino Superior Court, and the Court ordered the District to comply with Komar’s
request. The District appealed the ruling to the 4th District Court of Appeals, contending that
federal law preempted state law.

ISSUE: Does the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which limits public
access to school records, include the disciplinary records of students?

LEGAL THEORY: FERPA provides for the privacy of education records, and goes on to
define education records as documents which “contain information directly related to a student”
or “are maintained by an educational agency of institution…” (20 U.S.C. §1232g(a)(4)(A).)
Additionally, federal case law, specifically U.S. v Miami University (6th Circ. 2002) supported
FERPA’s definition of “education records” as including student disciplinary records “because
they directly relate to a student and are kept by that student’s university.” While FERPA does not
actually prohibit the release of education records, it conditions receipt of federal funding on the
basis of education agencies’ ability to safeguard the privacy of students and their families. The
result is that federal law prohibits educational institutions from receiving federal funds unless
they safeguard education records in the manner prescribed by FERPA, while California law
mandates that public expulsion records be disclosed on demand by the public. This is a direct
conflict between state and federal law.

CONCLUSION: Based on the facts and the legal theory above, the 4th Court of Appeals directed
the San Bernardino County Superior Court to set aside its ruling ordering Rim of the World USD
to turn over expulsion records to Komar.