A Journalist's Primer on Access to Schools.

This report based on "Seminar on Reporting from the Elementary School Classroom" begins with a session on the controversies surrounding issues of access and the public's right to know. The panelists were a school superintendent, a teacher, a former school board member, and a school district public affairs officer. The seminar audience was comprised of approximately 30 education reporters. Two words mentioned frequently during the discussion were "trust" and "balance." Educators feel journalists need to gain their trust; journalists talk about the need to build trusting relationships with educators in order to get access. Both sides pay homage to the need for balance in reporting, but they may not agree on whether or not it has been achieved in any particular story. But, should journalists, by necessity, have to build a trust relationship with education in order to get their stories? And, are education officials, particularly those in the public affairs offices of school systems, obligated to help reporters in the pursuit of their stories, providing whatever access is needed? In the end, journalists must contend with as many policies on access as there are school districts simply because virtually every jurisdiction is on its own in deciding when to extend access to reporters. (DFR)