Title
A Resolution Of The City Commission Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Authorizing The Appropriate City Officials To Execute The Attached Interagency Agreement With The School Board Of Broward County, Et Al., For The Sharing Of Information Regarding Juvenile Offenders.
Body
Staff Recommends: Approval of the attached Resolution.
Explanation:
Section 1002.22(2) and 1002.221, Florida Statutes, provide that education records created, maintained or used by public educational institutions and agencies shall be protected in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, and the implementing regulations issued pursuant thereto: and Section 1002.221 permits a public school, center, institution, or other entity that is part of Florida’s education system to release a student’s education records without written consent of the student or parent to parties to an interagency agreement among the Department of Juvenile Justice, the school, law enforcement authorities, and other signatory agencies.
The Uninterrupted Scholars Act (USA) 20 USC 1221, amending FERPA, permits access to a student’s records by an agency caseworker or other representative of a child, who has the right to access a student’s case plan, when such agency is legally responsible in accordance with state law for the care and protection of the student, provided that the student records or information will not be disclosed by such agency except to address the student’s education needs in accordance with the law.
Title 34 CFR Sections 99.31(a)(5)(i)(B) and 99.38(a) and (b) permit an educational agency or institution to disclose personally identifiable information from an education record of a student without written consent of the parent or eligible student if the disclosure is to state and local officials or authorities to whom this information is specifically allowed to be reported or disclosed pursuant to a state statute adopted after November 19, 1974, and concerns the juvenile system and the system’s ability to effectively serve, prior to adjudication, the student whose records are released.
Section 985.04(1), Florida Statutes, requires DJJ and the sheriff, chiefs of police and district school superintendent in each county to enter into an interagency agreement for the purpose of sharing information about juvenile offenders among all parties, to specify the conditions under which summary criminal history information is to be made available to appropriate school personnel, to specify the conditions under which school records are to be made available to appropriate department personnel, and to provide for notification to any classroom teacher of assignment to the teacher’s classroom of a juvenile who has been placed in a probation or commitment program for a felony offense.
Section 1003.53(6), Florida Statutes, addresses the exchange of information and/or coordination of services between school districts, and with social service, law enforcement, prosecutorial and juvenile justice agencies and juvenile assessment centers in the school district. Section 1006.13 (4)(a), (b) and (c), Florida Statutes, requires each district school board to enter into agreements with the county sheriff’s office and local police departments specifying guidelines for ensuring that acts that pose a serious threat to school safety, whether committed by a student or adult, are reported to a law enforcement agency, and addressing the role of school resource officers, if applicable, in handling reported incidents, circumstances in which school officials may handle incidents without filing a report with a law enforcement agency, and a procedure for ensuring that school personnel properly report appropriate delinquent acts and crimes; while creating zero tolerance policies that do not require the reporting of petty acts of misconduct and misdemeanors to law enforcement agencies. Section 1006.13(6)(b), Florida Statutes, provides that each district school board shall adopt a cooperative agreement with the Department of Juvenile Justice which establishes guidelines for ensuring that any no contact order entered by a court is reported and enforced and that all of the necessary steps are taken to protect the victim of the offense.
Broward County, Florida is a single county within the jurisdiction of DJJ Circuit 17. The parties recognize that a combined and coordinate effort is necessary to share information about juvenile offenders and to fulfill the objectives of Title 34 CFR Sections 99.31(a)(5)(i)(B) and 99.38(a) and (b); and Sections 985.04(4) and 1006.13 (4)(a) and (b) and (6)(b), Florida Statutes. The parties have developed the attached Interagency Agreement to encourage cooperation and collaboration among those agencies providing services to youth in Broward County, Florida.
Recommended for inclusion on the agenda by:
Dr. Wazir Ishmael, City Manager
George Keller, Assistant City Manager of Public Safety
Chris O’Brien, Chief of Police