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Sedona Oak Creek School District Finds Lost Student Document

sedona times / May 14, 2015 / No Comment

Sedona AZ (May 14, 2015) – The following is a letter to the SedonaEye.com editor:

The Sedona Oak-Creek Unified School District has admitted in Arizona District Court (3:14-cv-08166-JAT) that they have altered a student’s education record after-the-fact from the original given to the parents, thus bringing into question the veracity of the student’s educational record as whole.

The most disturbing issue is that the District’s counsel flat out denied that the document in question even existed in the first place, indirectly inferring that it had been fabricated. It was only after the District Court ordered the District to locate the document or produce specific documentation that the District had performed the necessary forensic steps to locate it, through a independent third-party, lo and behold, the document was located.

The way educational records are kept for our most vulnerable students is extremely disturbing. These potential liability issues with student records could easily be rectified with a few key best-practices put into place to ensure the fidelity of the record, but the District’s administration has repeatedly refused to employ such measures.

“The District does not date stamp incoming documents and appears to deliberately photocopy the incoming documents, enlarging them to eliminate any time/date stamps that might have been created through printing. The District does not rely on any manual or automated document management system; the educational record is basically folders, broken up by academic year, in which paper copies of documents are inserted.

There is no entry/exit log which would allow an individual to determine the when and by whom a specific documentation was either added, inserted, or removed from the educational record. Plaintiff asserts that the District, with the current educational record as it is, has no ability to declare that it is the ‘true’ educational record.” – Excerpt from Reply to Response to Court Order 2015-05-11.

I have appealed to the District’s Governing Board to use its influence to aid in rectify this very disconcerting situation in regards to how the educational records of students with special needs are managed.

I’m currently representing myself and my son in this matter as a lay advocate and a vetted member of Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), a national organization dedicated to the advocacy of special needs children.

Sincerely,

Matthew Oskowis
Sedona AZ