Maine’s Deputy Education Commissioner was so frustrated with the media’s insistence that he name the schools failing to make adequate yearly progress early this month that he is thinking about asking for a special law that would keep such information private until state officials are ready to release it.

Patrick Phillips said Thursday that the Maine Department of Education wants a law that would let the department release preliminary school progress data to school districts but keep it away from the public until officials could verify the information and correct any mistakes.

He says the law is needed “Because of the high stakes nature of this data,” he said.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires states to release the names of schools that haven’t made progress for two years or more. The state had said it would also release a list of schools that haven’t made progress for one year.

Schools that continually fail to make progress face sanctions and must allow students to transfer to another school in the same district.

State education officials said last September that they would release the names of failing schools on Oct. 27. They said it would take them that long to verify the information and correct any mistakes.

Several news outlets asked for the list before the official release date, saying the public had a right to view even preliminary documents.

Maine’s Freedom of Access Law allows the public to see all public records unless they pertain to negotiations, are interoffice memos or are designated confidential by law. According to Phillips, the Bangor Daily News and the Portland Press Herald filed formal requests for the information under the Freedom of Access Law three weeks ago.

The Maine Department of Education ultimately agreed to release the list on Oct. 24. But the list contained several mistakes. The state released a corrected version on Wednesday.

The situation frustrated state education officials, who had to scramble to get the documents ready for the early release and then send out corrections.

Phillips wants to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

He said he is looking at how other states deal with and protect such sensitive preliminary data. He is thinking about asking for a law that would allow the department to embargo or seal the yearly progress records until officials are ready to release them.

“It’s in the exploration stage now,” he said. “We’re certainly not interested in dramatic changes to that law but there may be certain circumstances where it’s in the public’s best interest to keep the information embargoes until it’s been vetted for accurately.”

[email protected]