Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 493: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the files parents can access on their children from primary and second level schools; if this information is at the discretion of an individual school; if such information is covered under the Freedom of Information Acts; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37713/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Section 20 of the Education Act 1998 places an obligation on the board of management of each school to establish procedures for informing parents of matters relating to the operation and performance of the school. Section 22(2)(b) of the Act provides that the principal and teachers of a school must regularly evaluate students and periodically report the results of the evaluation to the students and their parents. By virtue of section 9(g) of the 1998 Act, every recognised school must ensure that parents of a student who is under 18 years of age have access to records kept by that school relating to the educational progress of their child. While the Freedom of Information Acts do not apply to schools, they are subject to data protection law in the same way as other bodies that hold personal information on individual people.