(a) Any student may file a written request with the chief administrative officer of a community college district to correct or remove information recorded in his or her student records which the student alleges to be: (1) inaccurate; (2) an unsubstantiated personal conclusion or inference; (3) a conclusion or inference outside of the observer’s area of competence; or (4) not based on the personal observation of a named person with the time and place of the observation noted.

(b) Within 30 days of receipt of the request, the chief administrative officer, or his or her designee, shall meet with the student and the employee who recorded the information in question, if any, if the employee is presently employed by the community college district. The chief administrative officer or his or her designee shall then sustain or deny the allegations.

If the chief administrative officer, or his or her designee, sustains any or all of the allegations, he or she shall order the correction or removal and destruction of the information.

If the chief administrative officer, or his or her designee, denies any or all of the allegations and refuses to order the correction or removal of the information, the student, within 30 days of the refusal, may appeal the decision in writing to the governing board of the community college district.

(c) Within 30 days of receipt of an appeal, the governing board shall, in closed session with the student and the employee who recorded the information in question, if any, and if that employee is presently employed by the community college district, determine whether to sustain or deny the allegations.

If the governing board sustains any or all of the allegations, it shall order the chief administrative officer, or his or her designee, to immediately correct or remove and destroy the information.

The decision of the governing board shall be final.

Records of these administrative proceedings shall be maintained in a confidential manner and shall be destroyed one year after the decision of the governing board unless the student initiates legal proceedings relative to the disputed information within the prescribed period.

(d) If the final decision of the governing board is unfavorable to the student or if the student accepts an unfavorable decision by the chief administrative officer, the student shall have the right to submit a written statement of his or her objections to the information. This statement shall become a part of the student’s record until the information objected to is corrected or removed.

(Amended by Stats. 1995, Ch. 758, Sec. 93. Effective January 1, 1996.)