Majority Opinion
In an appeal heard by a three-judge Thirteenth Court panel, the majority (via a 2-1 opinion) concludes that if Socorro ISD (SISD) wants the student data it requested under the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA) from the IDEA charter network, the ISD’s only recourse is to file a FERPA-related complaint with federal education authorities.

That’s because, the majority ruled, IDEA’s invoking of FERPA ends the matter where the state is concerned — and that no state law (including TPIA), state court, or state attorney general’s ruling can change that fact. The majority decision orders SISD’s lawsuit dismissed.

Background
In January and in March of 2018, SISD submitted TPIA requests to IDEA for information about the charter’s prospective students. At the time the requests were made, the charter’s El Paso campuses were still under construction in preparation to open at the start of School Year 2018-19.

The requests (taken together) asked for info on El Paso students who had applied for admission, and students who were selected for admission, for the charter’s then-upcoming School Year 2018-19. SISD requested the students’ names, ages, addresses, telephone numbers, names of their current schools and districts, etc. SISD sued IDEA in state court after the charter cited FERPA in refusing to release any of the requested information. IDEA appealed after the trial judge refused to dismiss the suit.

Dissenting Opinion
The dissenting Thirteenth Court judge, in her opinion, criticized the majority opinion for “erroneously” allowing IDEA “to withhold public records from the local school district that it may not properly withhold.”

The dissenting judge concluded that — based on FERPA’s language — because the students in question were not actually attending IDEA’s El Paso campuses when the TPIA requests were submitted (because the schools at the time were still under construction), FERPA did not apply and SISD was entitled to obtain the info it sought via its TPIA requests.