Policy

Judge Blocks Release of Los Angeles Teachers' Ratings

Until a legal battle is resolved

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The performance ratings of individual teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District will be kept confidential until a legal battle over them is resolved, a judge decided Tuesday.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ruled earlier this month that the ratings must be released to the Los Angeles Times because public interest in them outweighed any teacher privacy rights under the California Public Records Act. But L.A. Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles joined to ask Chalfant to delay the release until they could appeal the ruling.

In their court filing, the district and teachers union argued that "immediate release of the scores will cause irreparable harm to privacy rights, and that harm dramatically outweighs any prejudice or inconvenience that might be caused by a brief delay in public release of the records" pending their appeal.