The ID numbers of 22 students from Hinsdale South and up to 18 students from Hinsdale Central and the Transition Center who received out of school suspensions during the 2022-23 school year were made public for about an hour June 20 on BoardDocs on the Hinsdale High School District 86 website.
A district resident who was checking the FOIA log noticed the document, the 2023 OSS report, which listed student ID numbers, the length of their suspension, a description of the incident and whether police were notified.
The resident emailed the district, noting that both the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act and Illinois School Student Records Act prohibit the release of student identifying information to the public without parental consent.
A June 23 email to the resident from Chris Covino, then acting superintendent and assistant superintendent of academics, indicated the district was talking multiple steps to ensure students’ privacy.
“One of those steps will be to notify all of the affected families of the incident,” he wrote. “Another step will be to contact those third parties we know viewed the document and request their assurances that they will not download, transmit or otherwise copy the report.”
The district has not heard from any of the families that they contacted about the issue, a district spokesman said.
A second email from Covino indicated the district is investigating the incident, “including identifying how it occurred, who was responsible and steps to be taken in the future to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.” Personnel issues typically are not discussed in public, added Covino, who left the district June 30 to become superintendent of La Grange Elementary District 102.
— by Pamela Lannom
