B.H., et al. v. Johnston County Board of Education

Filing 20

ORDER granting 19 Motion to Seal Administrative Record - The Court ORDERS that the parties shall submit the electronic version of the administrative record in this matter to the Court's CM/ECF System under seal. Signed by District Judge Louise Wood Flanagan on 05/14/2013. (Baker, C.)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA
B.H., et al.,
Plaintiffs,

v.
5: 12-cv-405-FL

JOHNSTON COUNTY
BOARD OF EDUCATION,
Defendant.

ORDER

This matter is before the Court on the parties Joint Motion to
Seal the Administrative Record in this action. This action is
brought under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
("IDEA''), 20 U.S.C. §1400, et seq., and involves a dispute regarding Defendant's provision of a free appropriate public education
to Plaintiff, B.H., who is a minor and a "child with a disability"
as that phrase is defined in IDEA.
IDEA and the parallel provisions of North Carolina state
law, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115C-109.3, prohibit the disclosure of any
record or information relating to the education of a child with a
disability. Similarly, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act, 20 U.S.C. 1232g (FERPA), protects educational records from
disclosure, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) protects medical records from disclosure.
The administrative record in this action consists almost entirely of materials protected by one or more of the foregoing federal and state privacy laws. Permitting general public access to

B.H.'s protected records and information via the Court's ECF
System would unnecessarily frustrate the purposes of those federal laws. Based on that concern, all parties to this action have
joined in a motion to seal the administrative record to be submitted to
the Court's ECF System in order to preserve the confidentiality of
B.H.'s protected educational and medical records and information.

The important interests served by making court filings available to the general public are significantly outweighed by the
need to preserve the confidentiality of the protected records and
information contained throughout the administrative record in
this case, and those privacy interests cannot be protected by any
measure short of sealing the electronic version of the administrative record to be maintained in the Court's CM/ECF System.
In light of the foregoing, the parties' joint motion to seal the
administrative record to be submitted to the Court's CM/ECF
System in this matter is hereby GRANTED, and the Court ORDERS that the parties shall submit the electronic version of the
administrative record in this matter to the Court's CM/ECF System under seal.

So ORDERED on this the

14 ~~

day of May, 2013.

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FLANAGAN
United States District Court Judge