St. Louis Post-Dispatch report on visible social security numbers (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education)

Dear Chris Keller:

On October 18, 2021, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) received your Sunshine Law request for public records. On October 19, 2021, DESE received your follow-up email asking for a status update on the previous day's request.

As a starting point, to clarify for you, public governmental bodies have three business days following the date of a request in which to provide a response to a Sunshine Law request under Missouri law (see, § 610.023.3, RSMo). You are receiving this response within three business days.

Your specific request is as follows:
All email, slack correspondence and text messages between officials in the office of Missouri Governor Mike Parson and officials with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education between Sept. 1 and Oct. 14 that mention Josh Renaud, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or the terms "hacking" or "social security numbers".
We are in the process of reviewing your request to locate and preliminarily identify what records we maintain that may be responsive. We estimate this process will take no more than 10 business days, meaning that we will be able to provide the time and cost estimate no later than November 3, 2021. This time frame is based on the size of this request, number of outstanding requests, various locations of the potentially responsive records, and current office responsibilities. Once it is complete, we will contact you with a time and cost estimate for your request, pursuant to § 610.026, RSMo.

Based on your request, we will submit the following email search to our IT department:

* Email Addresses to be Searched: all ending in "@dese.mo.gov<mailto:communications@dese.mo.gov>"
* All emails set to and received from "@governor.mo.gov"
* Date Range to be Searched: 9/1/21 to 10/14/21
* Keywords: "Josh Renaud" OR "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" OR "St. Louis Post Dispatch" OR "Post-Dispatch" OR "Post Dispatch" OR "hack" OR "Social Security number" OR "SSN"

Please be aware that to the extent information contained within the records is considered closed and/or confidential, it will be redacted pursuant to § 610.021, RSMo, and any other applicable state or federal law.

I hope this information is of assistance.

Respectfully,

Sarah G. Madden
Chief Counsel and Privacy Officer
Governmental Affairs
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Office: 573-751-3527
dese.mo.gov

PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION:
This document may contain privileged Attorney/Client Communication and/or Attorney Work Product protected from discovery and should not be disclosed except as specifically authorized in the preparation or disposition of this matter. If you are the intended recipient of this transmission, be advised that its use is restricted by law and for the purpose stated herein. If you are not the intended recipient of this transmission, take notice that any reviewing, use, dissemination, or copying of the information transmitted herewith is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please return it to the sender and delete all copies from your system. If you have any questions regarding the confidentiality of this document, you may call me at 573-751-3527.

Dear Chris Keller:

We are following up from our email of October 20, 2021, with respect to your request for records.
Your request was for:
All email, slack correspondence and text messages between officials in the office of Missouri Governor Mike Parson and officials with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education between Sept. 1 and Oct. 14 that mention Josh Renaud, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or the terms "hacking" or "social security numbers".
Based on those date parameters and your search terms, the estimated cost for your request is $53.77 (1.73 hours x $31.08/hour), pursuant to § 610.026, RSMo. This cost is based on the time needed to search for the records you have requested, determine if the records are responsive to your request, and make electronic copies of those documents. Please note that these fees do not include attorney time spent reviewing responsive documents for privileged or closed information.

Should you wish to go forward, please mail a check payable to the Treasurer, State of Missouri, to Governmental Affairs, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, P.O. Box 480, Jefferson City, MO 65102. Once we receive payment, based on the size of this request, the number of pending requests, and other office duties, we estimate that it will take no more than 15 business days to review and compile the documents we believe to be responsive to your request, and redact information considered to be closed or confidential. In other words, were we to receive payment for your request today, we estimate that we would be able to produce the responsive records no later than November 24, 2021.

Please note that to the extent information that is considered closed or confidential under law may be included in any records considered responsive, it will be redacted pursuant to § 610.021, RSMo, and appropriate state and federal law.

I hope this information is of assistance.

Respectfully,

Sarah G. Madden
Chief Counsel and Privacy Officer
Governmental Affairs
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Office: 573-751-3527
dese.mo.gov

PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION:
This document may contain privileged Attorney/Client Communication and/or Attorney Work Product protected from discovery and should not be disclosed except as specifically authorized in the preparation or disposition of this matter. If you are the intended recipient of this transmission, be advised that its use is restricted by law and for the purpose stated herein. If you are not the intended recipient of this transmission, take notice that any reviewing, use, dissemination, or copying of the information transmitted herewith is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please return it to the sender and delete all copies from your system. If you have any questions regarding the confidentiality of this document, you may call me at 573-751-3527.

Dear Mr. Keller:

We are responding to your email of November 3, 2021, with respect to your request for records.

As stated in our email of November 2, 2021, $53.77 is an estimated cost. Should your request require an additional time commitment beyond what was estimated, we will contact you with an explanation and the costs, which you will need to pay before the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will continue to process your request.

DESE will begin working on your request upon receipt of payment. When we have finished processing your request, we will provide responsive records to you in a PDF format, that will be sent to you via email. Please note that to the extent information that is considered closed or confidential under law may be included in any records considered responsive, it will be redacted pursuant to § 610.021, RSMo, and appropriate state and federal law.
Respectfully,

Sarah G. Madden
Chief Counsel and Privacy Officer
Governmental Affairs
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Office: 573-751-3527
dese.mo.gov

PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION:
This document may contain privileged Attorney/Client Communication and/or Attorney Work Product protected from discovery and should not be disclosed except as specifically authorized in the preparation or disposition of this matter. If you are the intended recipient of this transmission, be advised that its use is restricted by law and for the purpose stated herein. If you are not the intended recipient of this transmission, take notice that any reviewing, use, dissemination, or copying of the information transmitted herewith is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please return it to the sender and delete all copies from your system. If you have any questions regarding the confidentiality of this document, you may call me at 573-751-3527.

Dear Chris Keller,

On November 16, 2021, we received your check in the amount of $53.77 for the estimated cost of the records responsive to your request. We estimate that we will be able to provide these records to you no later than December 9, 2021.

Please note that to the extent information that is considered closed or confidential under law may be included in any records considered responsive, it will be redacted pursuant to Section 610.021, RSMo, and appropriate state and federal law.

I hope this information is of assistance.

Respectfully,

Sarah G. Madden
Chief Counsel and Privacy Officer
Governmental Affairs
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Office: 573-751-3527
dese.mo.gov

PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION:
This document may contain privileged Attorney/Client Communication and/or Attorney Work Product protected from discovery and should not be disclosed except as specifically authorized in the preparation or disposition of this matter. If you are the intended recipient of this transmission, be advised that its use is restricted by law and for the purpose stated herein. If you are not the intended recipient of this transmission, take notice that any reviewing, use, dissemination, or copying of the information transmitted herewith is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please return it to the sender and delete all copies from your system. If you have any questions regarding the confidentiality of this document, you may call me at 573-751-3527.

Dear Chris Keller:

We are following up from our email of November 17, 2021, with respect to your request for records.

Enclosed, please find the records we have determined to be responsive to your request, the parameters of which are reflected in the correspondence below. To the extent information is considered closed or confidential, it has been closed or redacted pursuant to §§ 610.021(1), RSMo, and 610.021(21), RSMo.

I hope this information is of assistance.

Respectfully,

Sarah G. Madden
Chief Counsel and Privacy Officer
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Office: 573-751-3527
dese.mo.gov

PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION:
This document may contain privileged Attorney/Client Communication and/or Attorney Work Product protected from discovery and should not be disclosed except as specifically authorized in the preparation or disposition of this matter. If you are the intended recipient of this transmission, be advised that its use is restricted by law and for the purpose stated herein. If you are not the intended recipient of this transmission, take notice that any reviewing, use, dissemination, or copying of the information transmitted herewith is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please return it to the sender and delete all copies from your system. If you have any questions regarding the confidentiality of this document, you may call me at 573-751-3527.