I

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 3947

To amend the General Education Provisions Act to allow parents access

to certain information.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

AUGUST 1, 1996

Mr. TIAHRT (for himself, Mr. SOUDER, Mr. LARGENT, Mr. HOEKSTRA, Mr.

COOLEY of Oregon, Mr. GUTKNECHT, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr.

LEWIS of Kentucky, Mr. TALENT, Mr. STOCKMAN, Mr. HUTCHINSON,

Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. ENSIGN, Mr. BARR of Georgia, Mr.

DORNAN, and Mr. CALVERT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities

A BILL

To amend the General Education Provisions Act to allow

parents access to certain information.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Parental Freedom of

5 Information Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. INFORMATION ACCESS.

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—
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1 (1) INFORMATION.—Section 444(a)(1)(A) of

2 the General Education Provisions Act is amended—

3 (A) by inserting before the period of the

4 first sentence the following: ‘‘, including, for an

5 elementary and secondary school student only,

6 any instructional materials, medical records (ex7 cept that access to medical records shall be de8 nied to a parent who is charged with or con9 victed of a crime against a minor until such

10 parent is acquitted or such charge is dropped),

11 and standardized achievement tests adminis12 tered to their children.’’;

13 (B) by striking ‘‘forty-five’’ in the last sen14 tence and inserting ‘‘30’’.

15 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section

16 444(a)(4) of the General Education Provisions Act

17 is amended by adding at the end the following:

18 ‘‘(C) For purposes of this section, the term ‘instruc19 tional materials’ means textbooks, audio/visual materials,

20 manuals, journals, films, tapes, or other supplementary

21 materials.

22 ‘‘(D) For purposes of this section, the term ‘medical

23 records’ means information regarding the medical health

24 of a student and includes any guidance and psychological

25 or psychiatric testing or treatment.
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1 ‘‘(E) For purposes of this section, the term ‘stand2 ardized achievement test’ means any common test admin3 istered during the current or previous school year through4 out a school, local educational agency, or State and in5 cludes the individual test results of a child, as well as any

6 available statistical comparison data regarding test results

7 of the child’s age or grade level.’’.

8 (b) CIVIL ACTION.—Section 444 of the General Edu9 cation Provisions Act is amended by adding at the end

10 the following:

11 ‘‘(i)(1) A parent of an elementary or secondary school

12 student whose right to gain access to instructional mate13 rials, medical records, or standardized achievement tests

14 during the 30-day compliance period set forth in sub15 section (a)(1)(A) has been knowingly or negligently vio16 lated may maintain an action for appropriate relief after

17 the last day of such period. Appropriate relief includes eq18 uitable or declaratory relief and reasonably incurred litiga19 tion costs, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.

20 ‘‘(2) A civil action under this subsection may not

21 commence more than 2 years after the last day of the 30-

22 day compliance period set forth in subsection (a)(1)(A).’’.

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