Page 20 - Demo

Page 20GENERATIVE AI AFFECTING RECORDS REQUESTSOne of the most recent struggles facing every public school district is parents using GenAI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gronk and/or specialized automated bots to draft and submit voluminous, hyper-detailed, and legally dense records requests. One of the primary issues stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the legal difference between a Public Record and a Student Record. The two primary laws involved are:%u2022 Chapter 119, Fla. Stat. (Public Records Act) : Florida%u2019s broad right-toknow law, which requesters use to request administrative records and information from a Florida government agency.%u2022 FERPA (20 U.S.C. %u00a7 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) : The Federal law that gives parents the right to inspect and review their child%u2019s education records maintained by the school or school district.In 2026, Records Management experienced a 137.5% increase from two years ago for these types of requests %u2013 before GenAI became popular and 17% increase from last year. The requests received are broad. For example: %u201call video footage and emails regarding the incident on the bus%u201d. The expectation is to receive everything. However, because other students may be involved, their identity and PII must be protected. The District is legally required to meticulously redact or blur other students. The time spent in reviewing and redacting averages to approximately 12 days per request. Oftentimes, these redactions are viewed as a %u201ccover-up%u201d or a lack of transparency, not realizing the District is bound by Federal law to equally protect the privacy of the other students.As always, Records Management, the Public Records Office in the Communications Department, the General Counsel%u2019s Office, and other District departments that must respond to records requests always do their very best to provide public records and/or student records in a timely manner and in compliance with FERPA and the Florida Public Records Act.