Lake County Schools is pursuing legal action after a district employee mistakenly provided a parent access to thousands of confidential student education and disability records, raising concerns about the protection of student information.

During Monday night’s School Board meeting, Nov. 9, School Board attorney Scott Cole addressed the disclosure, explaining how the mistake occurred and what steps the district has taken to prevent the information from being shared further.

According to Cole, the incident began when a parent submitted a public records request. While responding, a district employee accidentally emailed a link that provided access to records belonging to other students. The district’s complaint, filed Nov. 3 in the Fifth Judicial Circuit in Lake County, says the error happened Oct. 23, when an employee uploaded eight unredacted files instead of redacted versions.

“This was an employee error,” Cole says. “Mistakes happen and the best a district can do is to try to correct that mistake.”

After discovering the error, the district contacted the parent and requested that the records involving other students be destroyed. Officials also asked the parent to provide a sworn statement confirming their deletion.

“The purpose of that request was to prevent further disclosure and to give parents comfort that the records had been deleted,” Cole says.

The parent declined to destroy the records, prompting the district to file a complaint in circuit court seeking an injunction requiring their destruction.

“The district’s only interest is to protect these records from further disclosure,” Cole says.

Cole also addressed concerns about the number of student records involved.

The district initially believed records of about 1,800 students had been exposed and notified families based on that estimate. However, Cole told the board that the parent subsequently posted on Facebook that he had accessed approximately 47,000 records.

According to Cole, the district has since confirmed the larger figure.

“47,000 is a big number and it’s certainly understandable why that number could concern parents,” Cole says.

He emphasized, however, that the district is aware of only one person who obtained the information.

“That is the number of people to our knowledge who have actually obtained student information,” Cole says.

Cole told the board that the district was unable to update its notification to parents before the larger number was shared publicly on Facebook.

He also explained that accidental disclosures are generally resolved when the recipient cooperates by returning or deleting the information and confirming that it has been removed.

“Prompt cooperation here could have addressed the immediate concern about continued possession of other children’s records without requiring the district to initiate legal action,” Cole says.

The district maintains that its legal action is intended to protect students’ confidential information from further disclosure.

“I would hope that the parent will decide to voluntarily destroy the student information,” Cole says. “However unless or until that happens we are pursuing injunctive relief to protect that information for all our families.”