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Proactive Disclosure of Government Records

State and local governments should take steps through legislation and regulations to proactively disclose government records to the public.  Proactive disclosure ensures transparency and assists the public with timely and free access to information. Read More >>

Preventing the Abuse of Copyright to Ensure Public Access to Educational Materials

Parents have a right to know what their children are taught in school. Public records laws should therefore ensure access to public school curricular materials.  At the same time, copyright protections are important. They reward authors, artists, and innovators by helping them profit from their creations and protect them from people who would enrich themselves by using their work without their permission. But parents don’t ask for school materials because they want to profit off them—they simply want to know what materials are given to their children. Read More >>

Guiding Principles re Fees for Open Records Requests

Although government should be obliged to provide access to records reflecting its dealings, it should also be permitted to charge reasonable fees to recover, if only partially, the costs associated with processing disclosure requests. “Reasonable” fees are those directly related to the processing of a request, and which are not so exorbitant as to discourage requesters from exercising their right of access. Read More >>

Records Management re Physical Record Stored Off-Site or Electronic Records

Many physical records are now stored in off-site locations, which are not easily accessible by the [public body] to which they belong. This, in turn, can lead to significant and unacceptable delays in responding to [freedom of information act] requests. It is therefore necessary for the legislature to establish appropriate procedures to ensure that the people of [state] receive timely responses to their requests. Read More >>

States Should Not Limit Open Records Requests to State Citizens

Barring non-state citizens from the open-records process offends the people’s foundational right to access government information. The fact a potential requester lives in a different state should not determine his or her ability to request public records.  State policy choices often have impacts beyond a state’s borders. More importantly, first principles of good government, such as ensuring accountability for decision-making, counsel in favor of broad access to public records. Read More >>

State Disclosure of Federal Guidance

State governments should increase transparency into federal guidance documents received by state agencies.  The federal government is unlikely to continually require proactive disclosure of such sub-regulatory guidance, so states should take the lead in ensuring openness into what frequently borders on “secret law.” Read More >>