Cases & Developments

Opinion reversing in part the Circuit Court’s grant of Summary Judgment, and remanding. Plaintiff, the Better Government Association, a non-profit news organization in Chicago, submitted a request pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for City Colleges of Chicago’s records related to graduation rate. Plaintiff claimed the Colleges willfully violated FOIA by refusing to produce the requested records, which the College withheld or redacted based on its assertion that the records are exempt from disclosure under Section 7(1)(a) of FOIA and protected by FERPA. The Circuit granted judgment in favor of plaintiffs reasoning that the records were not exempt from FOIA as FERPA did not “specifically prohibit” their release. The Illinois Court of Appeals reversed, finding that the Colleges were prohibited by FERPA from releasing students’ personal identifiable information (PII) without consent, and that doing so could imperil their federal funding. The Court thus held that the decision was in error insofar as it found that FOIA compelled the Colleges to produce unredacted records in violation of FERPA. Therefore, the Court reversed and remanded with instructions for the lower court to conduct an in camera review of the materials to ensure that redactions removed all protected PII.