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Response: The state of current <br />technology requires cities to maintain <br />large databases that are designed to <br />provide secure data storage and <br />maintenance. Those databases are <br />already burdensome and expensive for <br />cities to maintain, but are not available in <br />a form in which public and private data <br />can be easily separated. Requiring cities <br />to design such databases to accommodate <br />extensive data requests under MGDPA is <br />both financially and technologically <br />challenging to achieve. <br />The Legislature should address the <br />growing and costly impact on cities of <br />providing access to specific public data <br />housed in large electronic databases. <br />Cities also require discretion in <br />determining that the release of certain <br />incident data could identify an individual <br />whose identity must be protected. <br />DP-5. Sharing of Student Data with <br />Local Law Enforcement in <br />Emergencies <br />Issue: Minn. Stat. § 13.32, subd. 3(1), <br />defines education data as private data that <br />must not be disclosed except to the juvenile <br />justice system in cases where information <br />about the behavior of a student who poses a <br />risk of harm is reasonably necessary to <br />protect the health or safety of the student or <br />other individuals. In addition, the federal <br />Family Education Rights & Privacy Act <br />(FERPA) bars schools from disclosing <br />information on student educational records <br />that contains personally identifiable <br />information without consent of a parent or <br />eligible student, with only limited <br />exceptions. <br />Minn. Stat. § 13.32 does not adequately <br />define who is responsible for making the <br />determination that an emergency or risk of <br />121 <br />harm exists. As a result, school district <br />officials have interpreted the statute in <br />conjunction with the restrictions in FERPA <br />to require that the determination be made <br />solely by school officials. <br />Local police officials are often frustrated in <br />their efforts to investigate allegations of <br />criminal or other illegal activity when school <br />officials refuse, under Minn. Stat. § 13.32, <br />subd. 3(1), and FERPA, to provide <br />information to follow up such complaints or <br />to assist local police in solving crimes that <br />have already taken place. <br />School boards are responsible to have <br />policies in place that require school officials <br />to report a student who possesses an <br />unlawful firearm to law enforcement or the <br />juvenile justice system. But schools are not <br />allowed to release the name of a student in <br />dangerous weapon reports involving use or <br />possession of such weapons that are made to <br />the Minnesota Department of Education. <br />Response: Minn. Stat. § 13.32 should be <br />clarified to allow local law enforcement <br />agencies to work with school officials to <br />jointly make the determination that an <br />emergency or risk of harm exists in order <br />to enable police enforcement actions to be <br />taken in a timely manner. <br />DP-6. Disclosure of Victim Data <br />Issue: Under the Minnesota Government <br />Data Practices Act (MGDPA), the name and <br />address of a victim or casualty of an <br />accident or incident to which a law <br />enforcement agency responds is public <br />government data. In addition, the name and <br />location of the health care facility to which <br />victims or casualties are taken is public <br />government data. The MGDPA allows a <br />victim or witness to prevent the disclosure <br />of public data unless the law enforcement <br />agency determines that revealing the identity <br />