How much should you have to fight (and pay) to get information about your children's schools? Yes, the conclusion to our week-long series about pandemic learning is a dive into Wisconsin public records law. Are you surprised? So let's talk location fees. 1/

Shortly after I started working here in Wisconsin, I filed an open records request for some road repair information. I got an email that to get the records, I would need to pay $100/hour for the municipality to search for the records. I assumed it was joke. It was not. 2/

Wisconsin law allows the govt to charge you for locating a record if the cost is $50 or more. This charge does not include postage or paper copies; it is the cost of simply finding the record. They can also require prepayment before you get the record. 3/

Agencies interpret that as charging for salaried staff time to search for records (the lowest-paid employee possible needs to conduct the search). E.g. if employee making $65,000/year takes 3 hours to locate records, you might get an estimate of $31.25/hour, totaling $93.75. 4/

In that $100/hour example I gave earlier, the agency was including fringe benefits in its calculation. So these fees can get very high, very quickly...leading to the question, are public records truly public if the public can't afford them? 5/

And that's the issue parents ran into in our story from last night. You may not know that many of the headlines you've seen over the last few months about dropping grades across WI were originally inspired by a Waukesha parent's open records request. 6/

Parents tell us school leaders kept saying the students were doing fine, but parents were watching their own kids struggle through hybrid/virtual learning. So one mom asked the district for data about GPA, % of students failing, absence, dropouts, etc. 7/

The district said pulling that data would cost $531.04. That's when other parents got involved. “I mean, what parent can shell out $500 to get data about things that the district should know and should be able to tell you instantaneously when you ask?” David Wadd asked. 8/

The parents chipped in to get the records, which showed dropping grades, and presented it to the school board. Some board members expressed surprise. They voted that night to return to fully in-person learning. But parents say this is not a happy ending. 9/

Because the issue is still out there! When @fox6now filed more narrow requests, a handful of school districts wanted to charge $100+ for the data. Wauwatosa said pulling the records would take 18 hours, costing $682.02. 10/

Open records advocates say that kind of fee makes a lot of requesters go away because they don't have that kind of money and don't know how to push back. So the information stays hidden. We pushed back, narrowed the request, and got the Tosa charge down to $75. But...11/

After we payed the $75, the district came back and said actually the search took longer than they expected. They gave us the records, but also gave us a bill for an additional $322. They just sent us a second notice this week, even though...12/

Turns out, the superintendent presented very similar data at a January public meeting...weeks before the district supposedly searched 6.25 hours for the records we requested. 13/

And back in Waukesha, a parent recently sent us ANOTHER location fee estimate. This was a request for employee disciplinary records; the parent keeps narrowing the request, but the district keeps coming back with the same estimate - 267 hours to locate, costing $8,861.73. 14/

So here's what agencies typically say in defense: We need these fees bc records requests take us away from other govt responsibilities, and taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook for one person's request. Open records advocates don't buy that. 15/

That's because 1. the law says providing records is part of govt's "routine duties." and 2. “It’s not on behalf of one person that a records response is being provided,” open records attorney April Barker said. “It’s a public interest that that information be shared.” 16/

Open records atty Tom Kamenick also points out that taxpayers are already paying public employees' salaries, so it's not costing the agency any more to search for records. To illustrate that point, check out this video (my boss was a good sport): 17/ https://www.fox6now.com/news/so-you-want-information-about-your-childs-school-got-500

And it's not much comfort to the requester to hear "Well, even though you need to pre-pay, we'll refund you if the search takes less time." How many of you have $8,861.73 that you can hand over, with the hopes you get some of it back? 18/

Waukesha SD says that particular estimate is so high because they'd have to search through every employee personnel file. Bill Lueders, pres. of Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, says location fees don't exactly encourage agencies to make records easy to find. 19/

Wisconsin's not allowing in allowing these fees; we found at least 30 states that have laws allowing similar charges (although in some cases they're capped differently). So what about the states that don't allow these charges? Has government come grinding to a halt? 20/

Time to talk about PA, which does not allow agencies to charge for staff time. An @OpenRecordsPA 2020 survey says nearly 92% of agencies reported spending fewer than 5 hours/week responding to records requests, including 62.2% that reported spending less than 1 hour/week. 21/

(And as someone who used to live and work in PA, I can confirm that the inability to charge location fees has not, in fact, caused government agencies to go bankrupt or grind to a halt...but it has led to requesters getting important information). @ErikOpenRecords 22/

There's also this handy piece of case law in PA (Dept. of Corrections v. Amanda St. Hilaire ) that basically says a requester can't be penalized for an agency having poor records keeping (say, a system that would require you to go through thousands of paper files). 23/

But back to Wisconsin - there are documented cases of agencies deliberately using location fees to keep information secret, like this Wauwatosa Police email suggesting using "high fees" to "combat the issue" of releasing public employee personnel info. 24/ https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2020/11/23/internal-email-suggest-tosa-pd-use-high-fees-to-combat-records-requests/

Right now, the govt can only charge you if the cost hits $50 or more (in my experience, it often does). The $50 threshold was set in the 80's and would be closer to $150 today. @GovEvers has proposed raising the threshold to $100. 25/

Open records advocates say that's promising...but doesn't get rid of a lot of the underlying issues. A $100 threshold doesn't help the parent who's getting an $8,000 estimate for records. So what can you do if you get a hit with a high fee? 26/

Question it! Ask for an itemized breakdown of the cost. Make sure the lowest-paid employee possible is doing the search, that the agency isn't trying to charge for benefits or redactions. You can also narrow your request. A convo w/ the records custodian can go a long way. 27/

You can also ask them to waive the charge (usually they don't, but it's worth a try). Agencies aren't REQUIRED to charge a location fee; the law just says they can. 28/

You can learn more about that in the story we aired last night. I'm also going to be on @fox6now in about 10 minutes talking about this issue. 29/ https://www.fox6now.com/news/so-you-want-information-about-your-childs-school-got-500

Maybe you've never filed an open records request, and don't care what it's costing other people. But if high fees keep information from coming to light, it affects the information you have and your ability to make decisions about your govt. 30/

The families in our story never thought they'd be filing open records requests. But then they saw their children struggling in school. You never know when you'll need/want that information. “We’ve discovered the power that exists in open records requests,” David Wadd said. 31/31