GoGuardian - Lists, Alerts

December 21, 2022

Mr. Dave Maass

requests@muckrock.com

Dear Mr. Maass

The Mt. Prospect School District No. 57 (the “District”) is in receipt of
your Freedom of Information Act request (“FOIA”) (5 ILCS 140/et seq.)
submitted via email on Monday, December 19, 2022, at 8:12 PM and officially
received by the District FOIA Officer on Tuesday, December 20, 2022. In
your FOIA request, you asked for a copy of the following record:

1.

A list of all website names, URLs and keywords that are
blacklisted/blocked by the district's GoGuardian web-filtering software.

1.

A list of all website names, URLs and keywords that the district has
manually whitelisted/allowed access to upon request through the GoGuardian
web-filtering software.

Please note that items 1 and 2 are usually available through an Excel file
called GoGuardian_Filters.xlsx. We have received this information from
other schools in this format.

3. All alerts generated by GoGuardian software from January 1, 2020 through
November 18, 2022. Please redact any identifying information. This includes
the following types of alert documents, usually available as Excel files:

a. Beacon

b. Flagged activity

c. Smart alerts

d. Policy export.”

Please note that your FOIA request has been granted. The requested records
responsive to Parts (1) and (2) of your above stated request are being
provided to you. However, the District does not have any records responsive
to Part (3) of your request. Moreover, any such records the District may
maintain responsive to Part (3) of your request would be exempt under FOIA.

Specifically, the records requested in Part (3) of your request would be
considered “school student records” under the Illinois School Student
Records Act (ISSRA) and its implementing regulations. Section 7(1)(a) of
FOIA prohibits the disclosure of any information otherwise protected by
state law, such as the Illinois School Student Records Act (ISSRA). 5 ILCS
140/7(1)(a). ISSRA prohibits the disclosure of student records and
information contained within a student record unless a specific exemption
applies. There is no exemption in ISSRA for providing student records, or
information contained within a school student record, in response to a FOIA
request.  See 105 ILCS 10/et seq.

FOIA further prevents the District from sharing even a redacted version of
a school student record. Section 7.5(r) of FOIA provides that, “to the
extent provided for by the [Illinois School Student Records Act (ISSRA)],
school student records are exempt from disclosure.” 5 ILCS 140/7.5(r).
Importantly, unlike the exemptions listed under Section 7 of FOIA,
exemptions required pursuant to Section 7.5 of FOIA are not subject to mere
redaction. Rather, the exemptions listed under Section 7.5 are entirely
exempt from disclosure. (Compare “[w]hen a … public record that contains
information that is exempt from disclosure under this Section, but also
contains information that is not exempt from disclosure” is requested,
“…the public body may elect to redact the information that is exempt. The
public body shall make the remaining information available for inspection
and copying.” 5 ILCS 140/7(1) (emphasis added), with “[t]o the extent
provided for by the statutes referenced [], the following shall be exempt
from inspection and copying: …” 5 ILCS 140/7.5.) As such, any record the
District would maintain that would be considered responsive to Part (3) of
your request could not be disclosed to you, pursuant to Section 7.5(r) of
FOIA.

Please note, you have a right to have the denial of Part (3) your request
reviewed by the Public Access Counselor (PAC) at the Office of the Illinois
Attorney General. 5 ILCS 140/9.5(a). You can file your Request for Review
with the PAC by writing to:  Public Access Counselor, Office of the
Attorney General, 500 South 2nd Street, Springfield, Illinois 62706. Fax:
217-782-1396. E-mail: publicaccess@atg.state.il.us. You also have the right
to seek judicial review of your denial by filing a lawsuit in the State
circuit court. 5 ILCS 140/11. If you choose to file a Request for Review
with the PAC, you must do so within 60 calendar days of the date of this
denial. 5 ILCS 140/9.5(a). Please note that you must include a copy of your
original FOIA request and this denial letter when filing a Request for
Review with the PAC.

If you have any questions or concerns related to this response, please
contact me.

Sincerely,
[image: Screen Shot 2021-07-18 at 12.22.12 PM.png]

Dr. Mary Gorr

District FOIA Officer

Mount Prospect School District 57

*Roberta Flack*
*Mount Prospect School District 57*
*Executive Assistant to the Superintendent and *
*The Board of Education*

*847.394.73 <847.394.7340>00 Ext. 1011| rflack@d57.org <rflack@d57.org>*

*https://www.d57.org* <https://www.d57.org>
*‌*

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