Public schools, like most public entities, accumulate a lot of personal information about the people they serve and employ. On the one hand, schools must hold in confidence information about their students and employees. On the other hand, such information may be relevant in a range of legal proceedings. In a criminal case, for example, the prosecutor may want to review the school records of a student charged with a crime. Or the defendant may want to review the school records of his or her accuser. Although the school would not have a direct interest in either proceeding (because it would not be a party to either), it would nonetheless be drawn in because it has information that the parties want.

The subpoena is the typical mechanism for obtaining records from someone who is not a party to a case. A form of court order, a subpoena directs the person named in it to appear at a designated time and place with certain records. In responding to a subpoena, a school must balance its duty to protect confidential in- formation against its duty to respond to a court order.

Through questions and answers, this article discusses these potentially conflicting obligations. The first two sections discuss the basic rules governing subpoenas—how they are issued and served, when a person can obtain reimbursement for expenses, and so on. The remaining sections deal with the process of responding to subpoenas, discussing the differences in responding to subpoenas for confidential versus non-confidential information.