Public Records Request Log - Massachusetts Department of Education

Erik Peterson filed this request with the Department of Education of Massachusetts.

It is a clone of this request.

Submitted Feb. 24, 2016
Status
Completed

Communications

From: Erik Peterson

Subject: Public Records Law Request: Public Records Request Log - Massachusetts Department of Education

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:

A log of public records requests submitted to the Department of Education that lists the date of request, the requester's name, the requester's organizational affiliation, a description of the request and the date the request was filled. Ideally I would like this information for the period from 2004 to the present.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, and is made in the process of academic research and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, 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.

Sincerely,

Erik Peterson
PhD Candidate
Department of Political Science
Stanford University

From: Varon, Joshua (DOE)

Subject: RE: Public Records Law Request: Public Records Request Log - Massachusetts Department of Education

Email

Dear Mr. Peterson:

I write to respond to your public record request, received by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (“ESE”) on February 24, 2016. Your requested “[a] log of public records requests submitted to the Department of Education that lists the date of request, the requester's name, the requester's organizational affiliation, a description of the request and the date the request was filled.”

Until recently, ESE had no central system for responding to public record requests. Program units individually responded to the requests for which they possessed responsive records, sought assistance from the legal office as necessary, and developed their own systems to ensure a timely response to these requests.

After checking with staff in individual program units, I did locate historical spreadsheets that track public record requests maintained by two units in the agency; they are provided to you in an Excel document entitled "Prior Public Records Requests_redacted." A first set of spreadsheets is from Program Quality Assurance (PQA); it dates back to 2010. A second spreadsheet, also in that same file, belongs to the legal office. Please be advised that the spreadsheet maintained by the legal office reflects an incomplete sample of the requests received during calendar year 2014. This spreadsheet was personal to a staff member and was not updated consistently or with 100 percent accuracy. These historical spreadsheets have been modified to remove personally identifiable information about students and personal contact information.

On July 30, 2015, Governor Baker issued a memorandum – effective September 1, 2015 – directing all executive office agencies to create a database of the type you have requested. I have attached this recently created database for our agency. It is entitled "ESE Public Records Request Log." I believe but cannot guarantee that this log contains all public records requests submitted to ESE since September 1, 2015.

Please let me know if you require further assistance.

Josh Varon
Legal Counsel
MA Dept. of Elem. and Sec. Ed.
jvaron@doe.mass.edu<mailto:jvaron@doe.mass.edu>
781-338-3409

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