Context: This morning, the National Education Association Rhode Island (NEARI) was in Court for a hearing on the complaint filed regarding teacher rights potentially at risk via APRA requests in the South Kingstown School District. The motion for a temporary restraining order was withdrawn by our counsel because SKSD agreed that documents containing collective bargaining information and individual teacher privacy must be protected and will not be included in the document release. More here.

(August, 23, 2021) - We are pleased with the outcome from today’s hearing regarding the APRA requests filed in South Kingstown. We had concerns with two categories of documents: collective bargaining and privacy rights of individual NEARI members. The School Department demonstrated they understand the need for individual privacy and clarified to the Court that their actions would not be in conflict with our concerns. Because the South Kingstown School Department is addressing the issues we raised, there is no need for a temporary restraining order.