THEATTORNEYGENERAL
OF’ TEXAS
R4 944
Aunm~. TEXAS 787ll
May 23, 1975
The Honorable Forrest Smith Opinion No. H- 615
Chairman
Texas Youth Council Re: Whether various public
Sam Houston State Office Building agencies may disseminate
201 East 14th Street information on juveniles to a
Austin, Texas 78701 private data bank.
Dear Chairman Smith:
You have requested our opinion regarding whether various public
agencies may disseminate information on juveniles to a private data bank.
Pursuant to this request, you submit for our inspection an “Automated
Interagency Information Management System Memorandum of Agreement, ”
whereby a number of public entities in Dallas County propose to become
“sponsors” of an Automated Interagency Information Management System
(hereinafter referred to as AIIMS), whose purpose is to “provide information
to facilitate research, planning and outreach programs directed at reducing
and preventing juvenile delinquency in the community of West Dallas. ”
“Overall fiscal and administrative management” will be performed by a
private agency known as Common Concern until June 30, 1975, when
these responsibilities will be assumed by a “Steering Committee” composed
of the representatives of the parties to the agreement and “associated
agencies, institutions and interested parties. ” The original sponsors, in
addition to Common Concern, include the Dallas Police Department, the
Dallas Independent School District, the Dallas Juvenile Courts Division,
and the Urban Planning Department of the City of Dallas.
Under the terms of the Agreement, each sponsor will provide
information on juveniles to AIIMS, including both individual and aggregate
data. As to the individual data, the Agreement provides:
All information shall be classified and maintained
in the data bank in such a manner that any individual
can neither be identified nor traced nor profiled by
any reasonable person.
p. 2725
The Honorable Forrest Smith - Page 2 (H-615)
The Dallas Police Department agrees to provide information
regarding each arrest made of a juvenile in the target area, including
race, sex, place of birth, date of birth, and a variety of other data
relating to the juvenile’s arrest and. the ultimate disposition of his case.
The individual’s name is not supplied, but his file is tagged with an
“identification number” for the internal use of the Police Department. His
current address is furnished only as a “Mapsco code number. ”
The Dallas Independent School District will submit information about
each student enrolled in a school in the target area, including name of
school, as well as the juvenile’s race, sex, place of birth, date of birth,
and other data relating to school performance and family background. Again,
the individual’s name is omitted, but his file contains an “identification
number” used by the School District. His current address is represented
only as a “Mapsco code number. ”
The Dallas County Juvenile Courts Division is to furnish informa-
tion as to race, sex, place of birth, date of birth, and a variety of other
data regarding the referral of an individual to the juvenile courts division,
including any involvement with drugs. The juvenile’s name is not supplied,
but his file is tagged with a “county identification number” for the internal
use of the ,Juvenile Courts Division.
The Urban Planning Department of the City of Dallas will furnish
“relevant demographic data concerning the target area. ” In addition to
the information regarding individual juveniles, the School District and the
Juvenile Courts Division also agree to submit data in aggregate form.
Section 51.14 of the Family Code provides, in pertinent part:
(a) All files and records of a juvenile court, a clerk
of court, or a prosecuting attorney relating to a child
who is a party to a proceeding under this title are open
to inspection only by:
(1) the judge, probation officers, and professional
staff or consultants of the juvenile court;
(2) an attorney for a party to the proceeding;
(3) a public or private agency or institution
providing supervision of the child by arrangement of
the juvenile court, or having custody of the child under
juvenile court order; or
p. 2726
The Honorable Forrest Smith - Page 3 (~-615)
(4) with leave of juvenile court, any other person,
agency, or institution having a legitimate interest in the
proceeding or in the work of the court.
. . .
(c) Law-enforcement files and records concerning a
child shall be kept separate from files and records of arrests
of adults and shall be maintained on a local basis only and
not sent to a central state or federal depository.
(d) Except for files and records relating to a charge for
which a child is transferred under Section 54.02 of this
code to a criminal court for prosecution, the law-
enforcement files and records are not open to public
inspection nor may their contents be disclosed to the
public, but inspection of the files and records is permitted
by:
(1) a juvenile court having the child before it in any
proceeding;
(2) an attorney for a party to the proceeding; and
(3) law-enforcement officers when necessary for the
discharge of their official duties.
Section 51.14 sets strictly circumscribed limits to the authority of a
juvenile court or a law enforcement agency to permit access of the files and
records of individual juveniles. As we recently held in Attorney General
Opinion No. H-529 (1975):
Section 51.14 is designed to preserve the traditional
confidentiality of files and records concerning juvenile
proceedings. . . . However, general statistical data
which provides no real opportunity for identification of
the juvenile offender in no way threatens such confidenti-
ality. We therefore construe the language “records”,
“relating to child” or “concerning a child” as contained
in section 51.14 to include only those records which furnish
a basis for the identification of the child.
p. 2727
The Honorable Forrest Smith - Page 4 (H-615)
We have been advised that individual AIIMS sponsors will not be
granted access to any information in the data bank regarding particular
juveniles. Only “general statistical data, which provides no real oppor-
tunity for the .identification of the juvenile offender, ” will be available
to the sponsors. Thus, the AIIMS Agreement appears to meet that
standard of confidentiality which we held in Opinion No. H-529 to be
required of juvenile courts and law enforcement agencies by section 51.14.
A similar standard of confidentiality is required of school districts
receiving federal funds by the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act,
20 U.S. C. § 1232g, which prohibits “the release of personally identifiable
records or files (or personal information contained therein) of students
without the written consent of their parent% ” It is thus our opinion that
the Dallas Police Department, the Dallas Independent School District,
and the Dallas County Juvenile Courts Division may each furnish to AIIMS
the information contemplated under the Agreement, so long as such data,
whether considered separately or collectively, does not provide a basis
for the identification of any individual juvenile.
SUMMARY
The Dallas Police Department, the Dallas Independent
School District, and the Dallas County Juvenile Courts
Division may disseminate particular information on
juveniles to a private data bank so long as the information
does not reasonably furnish the basis for the identification
of individual juveniles.
ery truly yours,
/Y
Attorney General of Texas
r-APPROVED:
Opinion Committee
jwb
p. 2728