I have been asked to speak about this eleven times in a year, which I did not expect, and I say yes to all of it, and it is mostly small rooms — a PTA, a district family engagement night, a church hall with forty people and bad coffee.

I say four things.

One. Ask for the file. It is free, it is your right, and you do not have to give a reason.

Under federal law you may inspect your own child’s complete education records.

The district has forty-five days.

You write one paragraph.

You do not need a lawyer and you do not need a grievance and you do not need to be angry.

And separately, under your state’s open records law, anybody at all may ask a school district for its own aggregate numbers — how many reports, how many findings, by campus, by year.