REDACTION STANDARDS FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION IMPARTIAL HEARING DECISIONS

Effective May 2016

Categories	Explanation
Regarding Student	Student, parent/guardian, family member names or initials, addresses, telephone, email, SS#, ID# (e.g., student ID), personal pronouns (he, she) only when they will identify person (e.g., in class of 1 male & 2 females, “he” would identify the student); family information (e.g., income, siblings); class information (e.g., speech, number in class); personal characteristics or other information that would make it possible to identify the child with reasonable certainty.
Regarding School District	Not redacted unless release of such information would result in the release of personally identifiable information (e.g., if district had five or fewer impartial hearing requests in same school year).
Case Numbers	Not redacted unless release of such information would result in the release of personally identifiable information (e.g., if district had five or fewer impartial hearing cases in same school year).
Names of Impartial Hearing Officers (IHO)	Not redacted unless release of such information would result in the release of personally identifiable information (e.g., IHO serves only five or fewer districts outside of NYC).
Attorneys	Names of all attorneys (for parents & districts)
Professional Staff	Names of building, district specialists (e.g., psychologists, speech/language therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, counselors, doctors).
Medical Information	Diagnoses, treatments, conditions, symptoms, medications, hospital or medical clinic or staff names or identifying information.
Psychological Diagnosis	Symptoms & treatments (e.g., schizophrenia, pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, ADHD, ADD).
Classifications	Special Education Disability types or categories.
Specific Services	OT, PT or speech therapy (ST), counseling, adaptive physical education (APE), other related services.
Information that reveals Medical Information & Diagnoses	For example, TEACCH (programs & ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) are used almost exclusively for autism; tics implies Tourette’s Syndrome
Testing Results	Grades, test scores, ratings, ranges (e.g., psychological tests, “below average” range).
Academic Achievement	Scores or levels (e.g., reading or math grades, areas of weakness or strength in academic, language, social or physical skills, learning rate, educational performance).
Evaluation Results	For example, “weak comprehension skills, weak pragmatic language.”
Titles of Evaluators/Evaluations	For example, psychologist, neuro-psychoeducational evaluation, speech/language, OT.
Days	Days of school/program attended, attendance records.
Private School	Name of school, address, teachers, staff names, names of classes & other identifying information.
Miscellaneous Information	Criminal record, behavioral needs; incident reports or history; drug use, placements, personal/social history; social services records; removal from parents.