The Collier County School System is poised to pay $30,000 to settle a lawsuit and to provide the email addresses of public school parents to a conservative education advocacy group so it may send its newsletter to those parents.
The Collier County board of education will vote Wednesday morning on a consent agenda that includes this provision.
If passed, the board will pay attorney fees and costs for the suit brought by the Florida Citizens Alliance and will post a release within the parent portal that gives parents 30 days to consent or deny release of their email addresses to the conservative nonprofit.
Further, the settlement states that the board would not be allowed to notify parents that the release request has been posted, and if parents do not respond within 30 days of this posting, their consent will be assumed.After the consent window closes, the board will then be required to give Florida Citizens Alliance a list of all email addresses of traditional public school parents who opted in or declined to opt out.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2023 after the school system’s records custodian denied the group’s request for parent emails, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. FERPA protects student education records and personally identifiable information derived from those records.
Florida Citizens Alliance objectives include advocating alternatives to public school education and encouraging the establishment of Christian-based micro-schools.
