Law & Courts

Tenn. District Suspends Honor-Roll Recognition

By Michelle Galley — February 04, 2004 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

For the time being, a student may make the honor roll in Nashville, Tenn., but dwell there in obscurity.

The Nashville school district has temporarily halted schools’ posting of the names of students who earned the recognition until officials iron out privacy issues. The prohibition has prompted schools statewide to examine a law dating back at least a decade.

Concern about the district’s honor-roll system arose last month, when two parents complained that some students might feel embarrassed by not achieving the distinction, according to Craig Owensby, a spokesman for the 70,000-student system. While investigating the complaint, district administrators learned from their lawyers that an honor-roll student’s name can be posted only if his or her parent previously signed a permission slip.

As a result, all honor-roll postings were curbed, and district officials scrambled to pass out the necessary forms to all parents in the district, Mr. Owensby said last week. “We’ve been distributing permission forms for over a week,” he said.

The district’s action does not address parents’ concerns about student embarrassment, Mr. Owensby acknowledged, but the complaint did draw attention to the state law requiring parental permission.

Events Canceled

Meanwhile, two schools have canceled assemblies at which administrators planned to congratulate students on their academic performance.

The dust-up also raised the ire of some parents, who contended that requiring parents to sign permission slips for the honor roll was taking student privacy laws too far, according to the Associated Press.

Both the honor-roll recognition and the academic assemblies will be in full swing again by the beginning of the next marking period next month, Mr. Owensby said. “We have every intention of rewarding students who do well.”

Having their names posted on an honor roll, he said, “is a powerful incentive for some students.”

Federal Law Differs

At the beginning of each school year, parents of children attending the Nashville schools are routinely asked to sign waivers allowing images of their children to be released and are given information about the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA. The federal law was designed to protect student information from unauthorized disclosure.

But parents had not been asked to give permission for their children to be named as honor-roll students, Mr. Owensby said.

As a result of the flap in Nashville, other districts in Tennessee have been examining their honor-roll policies. Schools are looking for clarification from the state, according to Kim Karesh, a spokeswoman for the state education department.

The state law regarding permission slips for the honor roll has been on the books for at least the past 10 years, she said. But, Ms. Karesh added, she could not gauge compliance. “It is a complaint-driven system,” she said. “Not one we police.”

State law in Tennessee is stricter than FERPA. Student honors, annual yearbooks, athletic participation, and playbills for school performances are all examples of “directory information” that is exempt under the federal law.

“We’re so used to federal law trumping everything,” said Randall Bennett, the assistant executive director and legal counsel for the Tennessee School Boards Association. “Most everyone took the position that FERPA was the controlling law.”

Still, correcting the situation should not be difficult, he said. “Each fall, we have parents sign so many slips, we can certainly include one about the honor roll.”

Even though FERPA allows schools to release honor-roll information, districts around the country should consider following Nashville’s lead, said Charles J. Russo, an education and law professor at the University of Dayton, in Ohio. “One of the things that education law needs to be is proactive, to anticipate areas that could give rise to litigation and controversy,” he said.

Nashville school officials are also considering changes in how and when they get parental permission for next school year, Mr. Owensby said. “The bottom line of the whole situation is that we want to be sure we are in compliance with state law.”

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Assessment Webinar
Rethinking STEM Assessment: Strategies for Administrators
School and district leaders will explore strategies to enhance STEM assessment practices across their district, within schools and classrooms.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
Federal Webinar Keeping Up with the Trump Administration's Latest K-12 Moves: Subscriber-Exclusive Quick Hit
EdWeek subscribers, join this 30-minute webinar to find out what the latest federal policy changes mean for K-12 education.
Artificial Intelligence Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: Math & Technology: Finding the Recipe for Student Success
How should we balance AI & math instruction? Join our discussion on preparing future-ready students.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Reinstate Ed. Dept. Layoffs
The administration asks the U.S. Supreme Court to remove an injunction blocking the layoffs of nearly 1,400 department employees
4 min read
Attorneys from the Education Department's General Counsel Office Emily Merolli, second left, and Shaw Vanze in the back, second right, are greeted by supporters after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Attorneys from the U.S. Education Department's General Counsel Office Emily Merolli, second left, and Shaw Vanze in the back, second right, are greeted by supporters after retrieving their personal belongings from the department's headquarters in Washington on March 24, 2025. The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to undo a federal district court injunction that would reinstate some 1,400 employees laid off from the department.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Law & Courts A Court Told Trump to Reverse Ed. Dept. Layoffs. Will It Happen?
A judge ruled May 22 that the Trump administration had to reinstate laid-off Ed. Dept. staffers. They're still not back on the job.
6 min read
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025.
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025. A judge has ordered the reinstatement of terminated department employees, but they have yet to return to work.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Law & Courts Appeals Court Ruling Raises Bar for Challenging School Book Bans
A federal appeals court rejected a challenge to book removals in a Texas public library and overruled a precedent on school library cases.
6 min read
Books sit on shelves in an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta on Aug. 18, 2023.
Books sit on shelves in an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta on Aug. 18, 2023. A federal appeals court covering Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas has made it more difficult for public and school library patrons to challenge book removal decisions.
Hakim Wright Sr./AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Won’t Hear ‘Two Genders’ Student T-Shirt Case
Over two justices' dissent, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a student barred from wearing an anti-transgender T-shirt.
6 min read
Liam Morrison, pictured in the "There Are Only Two Genders" shirt at the heart of his Supreme Court case, L.M. v. Town of Middleborough.
Liam Morrison, pictured in the "There Are Only Two Genders" shirt at the heart of his Supreme Court case, <i>L.M.</i>&nbsp;v.&nbsp;<i>Town of Middleborough</i>.
Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom