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Advisory Opinion 98-020

April 29, 1998; School District 196 (Rosemount)

4/29/1998 10:15:43 AM

This is an opinion of the Commissioner of Administration issued pursuant to section 13.072 of Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13 - the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. It is based on the facts and information available to the Commissioner as described below.

Facts and Procedural History:

For purposes of simplification, the information presented by the person who requested this opinion and the response from the government entity with which the person disagrees are presented in summary form. Copies of the complete submissions are on file at the offices of PIPA and, with the exception of any data classified as not public, are available for public access.

On March 9, 1998, PIPA received a letter from Mark T. Porter, Director of Human Resources and Legal Services for Independent School District (ISD) #196, Rosemount. In his letter, Mr. Porter asked the Commissioner to issue an opinion regarding the classification of certain data maintained by ISD #196. Mr. Porter enclosed copies of related correspondence. A summary of the detailed facts of this matter follows.

ISD #196 received a request for access to [t]he percentage grade of each student in a particular class, along with each corresponding student's GPA prior to the 1997/98 year (summary data only, assign matching identifiers). The District also received a request for a copy of the grade book for the same class. The requestors asked that the District use and match the same identifiers for this data so that it matches the GPA's of [sic] and student's percentage grades asked for [above].

Issues:

In his request for an opinion, Mr. Porter asked the Commissioner to address the following issues:

Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13, may ISD #196 release, as public data, multiple sets of summary data regarding students with common student identifiers that would allow for correlation or cross-referencing of the data, where the school district believes that such correlation could lead to the identification of the individual students?
Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13, may ISD #196 release, as public data, a copy of a teacher's grade book (with student names removed), which includes multiple elements of summary data correlated as to each student, where the school district believes that such correlation could lead to the identification of the individual students?

Discussion:

Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Section 13.32, most educational data, i.e., data on individuals maintained by a public educational agency or institution which relate to a student, are classified as private.

Pursuant to Section 13.02, subdivision 19, [s]ummary data' means statistical records and reports derived from data on individuals but in which individuals are not identified and from which neither their identities nor any other characteristic that could uniquely identify an individual is ascertainable. Pursuant to Minnesota Rules Part 1205.0200, subpart 16, means data which has been extracted, manipulated, or summarized from private or confidential data, and from which all data elements that could link the data to a specific individual have been removed. Summary data are accessible to the public.

In the case of summary data derived from data about students, guidance must also be sought from federal law. See Commissioner's Advisory Opinion 96-025 for a thorough discussion of the requirements of federal law.

In his opinion request, Mr. Porter wrote:

The school district believes that providing multiple pieces of summary data with matching identifiers that allow for the cross-referencing and/or correlation of data would be in contradiction to the definition of summary data due, to the fact that such data could uniquely identify an individual who is the subject of the data. (See, Minn. Stat. 13.02, subd. 19) Therefore, such data must remain classified as private educational data.

Mr. Porter stated that the data requested, without the matching student identifiers, are properly classified as summary data, and the District would be willing to provide those data.

In Advisory Opinion 96-025, the Commissioner addressed a similar issue:

Guidance on the issue of whether the data requested by the Star Tribune are summary data, or private data that MDCFL must protect from public disclosure, comes from provisions in the MGDPA, from federal law and from a detailed examination of the data being requested.

As described earlier, educational data are, in most instances, private data. However, for the data requested by the Star Tribune to be private, the data must be data on individuals. (Minnesota Statutes Section 13.02, subdivision 12.) Data on individuals means all government data in which any individual is identified or can be identified as the subject of the data. (Section 13.02, subdivision 4.) The Rules of the Department of Administration clarify that data on individuals include all data . . . if it can in any way identify any particular individual. (Minnesota Rules, Section 1205.0200, subpart 4.) If an examination of a set of government data allows the examiner to be able to associate that set of data with a particular individual, then, for purposes of Chapter 13, the data in question are data on individuals.

The District believes that the data requested, i.e., each student's grade point average, linked with the student's percentage grade, and grade book data, could uniquely identify an individual student. Mr. Porter did not offer any detailed discussion as to how he thinks such identification might occur. Without seeing the data, the Commissioner is not able to overcome the District's view. In some cases, it seems likely that it would not be possible to identify an individual, and in other cases it might be possible to do so. It is up to the District to make the determination whether the inclusion of matching student identifiers would mean the data are not summary data. Therefore, the data may not be released as requested, i.e., with the matching student identifiers.

Opinion:

Based on the facts and information provided, my opinion on the issues raised by Mr. Porter is as follows:

Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13, ISD #196 may not release, as data, multiple sets of summary data regarding students with common student identifiers that would allow for correlation or cross-referencing of the data, if the District believes that such correlation could lead to the identification of individual students.
Pursuant to Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13, ISD #196 may not release, as public data, a copy of a teacher's grade book (with student names removed), which includes multiple elements of summary data correlated as to each student, if the school district believes that such correlation could lead to the identification of individual students.

Signed:

Elaine S. Hansen
Commissioner

Dated: April 29, 1998

Educational data

Summary data

Grade book or testing data

Summary data

Combining data elements may uniquely identify an individual