Schools are seeking legal advice over fears they will be “overwhelmed” by requests from students for information about their centre-assessed grades and rankings following this summer’s results fiasco.
Joanna Lake, associate solicitor in the information law team at Stone King, told Tes: “It’s the opening line of the queries we are getting - we are worried we are going to be overwhelmed, how can you help?”
She added: “It’s something that schools have been aware of for some time and we are seeing an increase in these requests now.”
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The firm expects that most schools will be asked for information from students, especially after a recent U-turn which saw centre-assessed grades validated as results if they were higher than the Ofqual-moderated grades.
She said: “In particular in light of this U-turn earlier this week, students who are unhappy with their grades will be particularly interested in understanding how schools arrived at the decision to award them a particular grade before they attempt an appeal.”
Ms Lake said that this is a pressing issue for schools even though the parameters for appealing CAGs are quite narrow.
She said: “Regardless of the narrow parameters open to students to appeal, they still have a legal right to make a subject access request for any personal data the school holds about them, including any personal information held in relation to how teachers determined their grades.
“Students are most likely to ask for this information if they are not happy with their grades. Subject access requests must be responded to without delay and within one month of receipt of the request.”
Ms Lake explained that the deadlines for responding to requests are quite tight.
Requests made under the GDPR (subject access request) have a deadline of a month, while those made under the Freedom of Information Act must be responded to within 20 school days - or 60 working days, whichever is shorter.
The Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the independent sector, Ms Lake stated.
“It only applies to public authorities, that would include academy trusts, further education colleges, maintained schools as well,” she said.
Ms Lake had three suggestions for schools worried about information requests.
First of all, schools need to ensure staff are able to distinguish between subject access request and FOIA requests, as they have different deadlines, and understand the school’s procedure with dealing with those requests.
Secondly, she advised schools to have a system in place that allows to record requests and deal with them in order of priority based on how much time there is to respond.
And finally, she said that schools receiving information requests need to ensure they are clear on what information is being requested (and what they can and can’t disclose) and if they need clarifications they should ask.
She concluded: “That’s really important for schools to remember: to stay calm and not panic and just ask the requester.”
