List of Baltimore City schools with reported COVID cases

Open Justice Baltimore

The Baltimore City Department of Health is in receipt of your request, below. It is governed by the Maryland Public Information Act, codified in Sections 4-101, et. seq. of the General Provisions Article of the Maryland Code. A request for public information under the PIA must be submitted to the custodian of public records. Md. Code, Gen. Prov., § 4-202(a). Each governmental entity, including each Baltimore City agency, is the custodian of its own records. See Baltimore City Code, Art. 1, Section 10-1. This response is on behalf of the Baltimore City Health Department.

Surveillance data received by the Baltimore City Health Department, as well as the other county health departments, is determined by state law to not be a public record and is confidential and unable to be disclosed to anyone. Md. Code, Health- Gen., 18-201, et. seq. The language in the applicable sections states: "reports and all information collected in connection with a report from a health care provider, the subject of the report, or other individuals who might be affected by the condition or disease in the report are: (i) Confidential; (ii) Not medical records under Title 4, Subtitle 3 of this article; (iii) Not open to public inspection; and (iv) Not discoverable or admissible in evidence in any civil or criminal matter except in accordance with a court order sealing the court record." Md. Code, Health- Gen., 18-201(c)(1)(emphasis added). That is the section for health care providers, but similar language exists for reports from labs and institutions.

The PIA defers to this state law. Md. Code, Gen. Prov., § 4-201(a)(1). Thus, all surveillance data that the Health Department receives is unable to be disclosed. The law does allow the Maryland State Secretary of Health to release aggregate data. "The Secretary may prepare and disseminate nonindividually identifiable information about one or more cases of a condition or disease based on any report received under this section, for any purpose consistent with the Secretary's lawful duties as authorized by an act of the Maryland General Assembly." Md. Code, Health- Gen., 18-201(c)(3). It is my understanding that the Maryland Health Department will shortly be providing a response on behalf of all jurisdictions in Maryland.

Moreover, the statistics you want would have to be aggregated from existing surveillance data. The PIA does not require the government to compile a record in response to a request. Attorney General of Maryland, Maryland Public Information Act Manual, p. 2-3 (14th ed. 2015)("An agency has no obligation to create records to satisfy a PIA request."); see, also, N.L.R.B. v. Sears & Roebuck Co., 421 U.S. 132, 161-62 (1975) (FOIA "only requires disclosure of certain documents which the law requires [an] agency to prepare or which the agency has decided for its own reasons to create"); Yeager v. DEA, 678 F.2d 315, 321 (D.C. Cir. 1982) ("It is well settled that an agency is not required by FOIA to create a document that does not exist in order to satisfy a request."); see also MacPhail v. Comptroller of Maryland, 178 Md. App. 115, 119 (2008) (explaining that pertinent FOIA cases are persuasive authority in Maryland because the PIA and FOIA share "virtually identical" purposes).

Nothing in this response is intended to indicate that any records sought from City agencies exist or to waive any privileges held by the Mayor and City Council. You may contest this response by filing a complaint in Circuit Court pursuant to PIA Section § 4-362.

Best,
Hilary Ruley

[cid:image001.png@01D21971.CFDD6E80]<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.baltimorecity.gov%2F&data=04%7C01%7CHilary.Ruley%40baltimorecity.gov%7Cd4d514444f3942c6188508d870789d58%7C312cb126c6ae4fc2800d318e679ce6c7%7C0%7C0%7C637383010636691592%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=rEktx%2FfTcONmLmcCn6Lbdym4elDM00%2BN1pTfphPyJy0%3D&reserved=0>
Department of Law

Hilary Ruley
Chief Solicitor, General Counsel Division

Baltimore City Department of Law

100 N. Holliday Street, Suite 101
Baltimore, MD 21202
Hilary Ruley@baltimorecity.gov<mailto:Hilary%20Ruley@baltimorecity.gov>

Office: (410) 396-3271

Baltimore City Health Department
PIA Office
1001 E. Fayette Street
Baltimore, MD 21202

October 12, 2020

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

I am requesting a list of the names of all Baltimore City schools (both public and private) that have reported positive cases of COVID-19, along with the total number of cases reported at each of those schools. The information I am requesting should not contain any personally identifiable information (and any such information should be redacted), only numbers reported by the schools. For background information, the data I am requesting is discussed in the article "Maryland schools will have to report any coronavirus cases - but health officials don't plan to publicize the data", which can be found here: https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-pr-md-schools-coronavirus-data-20201005-20201009-3zwydnjpqjhbfemnblepumy3ii-story.html<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.baltimoresun.com%2Feducation%2Fbs-pr-md-schools-coronavirus-data-20201005-20201009-3zwydnjpqjhbfemnblepumy3ii-story.html&data=04%7C01%7CHilary.Ruley%40baltimorecity.gov%7Cd867788cbb7d48284b0408d8713863aa%7C312cb126c6ae4fc2800d318e679ce6c7%7C0%7C0%7C637383834283613088%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=5nwWAh8oRJX79NW7TRckb863CqF5nQHRojAYhIFQgbI%3D&reserved=0>.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Open Justice Baltimore

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PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.