In Frank Curry and FOIABuddy v. South Western School District, AP 2024-1311, a school district (“District”) received a request for records related to IT operations, contracts, staff, and IT budget from Frank Curry and...more
In Pa. Office of the Governor v. Brelje, 2024 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 65, at *1 (Commw. Ct. Feb. 23, 2024), the Office of Open Records (“OOR”) concluded that requests for all incoming and outgoing email for two agency employees over...more
Foster v. Pennridge School District, AP 2023-0931 (July 5, 2023). The Office of Open Records determined that a school district properly redacted and withheld certain email chains discussing the school district’s investigation...more
In Forrest v. Erie City, AP 2023-1701 (Sept. 28, 2023), Erie City responded to a request for a list of all rental properties registered and licensed in the City in an Excel spreadsheet by providing a PDF conversion of the...more
Penncrest School District. v. Cagle, 293 A.3d 783 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2023). The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania establishes a three-part test that must be used to determine if an individual’s social media post is a record of an...more
Methacton Sch. Dist. v. Off. of Open Records of Cmmw., 250 C.D. 2021, 2021 WL 6122163, at *1 (Pa. Cmmw. Dec. 28, 2021). The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania holds that a request for the emails of four individuals over a...more
Chester Water Authority v. Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development, 249 A.3d 1106, 1108 (Pa. 2021), reargument denied (June 17, 2021). Pennsylvania Supreme Court holds that communications between an agency...more
Section 708(b)(10)(i)(A) of the Law, which excepts from the general requirement for disclosure of public records:
A record that reflects:
The internal, predecisional deliberations of an agency, its members,...more
Highlands School District v. Rittmeyer, — A.3d –, 2020 WL 7061810, 163 C.D. 2020 (Pa. Commw. Dec. 3, 2020). Commonwealth Court holds that school districts are not required to disclose the names of employees when issuing a...more
As an elected school board member, you are looked to as a community leader and are expected to take a leadership role in representing your school district’s interests. In fulfilling this role, many school board members...more
Easton Area Sch. Dist. v. Miller, 232 A.3d 716 (Pa. 2020). Pennsylvania Supreme Court holds that images of students in a school bus surveillance video are “educational records” under FERPA and must be redacted before...more
In Highlands School District v. Rittmeyer, - A.3d -, 2020 WL 7061810, 163 C.D. 2020 (Pa. Commw. Dec. 3, 2020), the Requester submitted two RTKL requests seeking information about employees who were placed on unpaid leave,...more
In Scott v West Chester Borough Police Department, AP 2020-1987, the Department denied a request for records identifying the weapons and other equipment possessed by the Department. The request sought documentation that...more
Section 1307 of the Right-To-Know Law requires the Office of Open Records (“OOR”) to establish a fee schedule for Commonwealth agencies and local agencies like municipalities and school districts. On December 22, 2020, the...more
In Anonymous v. Norristown Municipality, AP 2020-2496, the Municipality received a request for records about a police officer from a Requester identified only as “E3E3” that was sent from admin@e3e3.com. The Municipality...more
In Schultz v. Montgomery County, AP 2020-1280, the Requester sought records related to a County Commissioner’s social media accounts, including sent and received Twitter Direct Messages and private Facebook messages, all...more
In Weik v. Pennsylvania State Police, AP 2020-1139 (October 6, 2020), the Requester sought records related to a fatal police shooting. The State Police identified a responsive Incident Report, but denied the request, arguing,...more
In O’Brien v. City of Pittsburgh, AP 2019-1694, the Requester sought records regarding the employment application, including a psychological assessment conducted by the City, of an individual who was not a City police...more
On July 15, 2020, the OOR stated the following in an email:
Two bills related to the Right-to-Know Law and one related to the Sunshine Act have been advancing in the General Assembly.
House Bill 1780 would clarify that...more
In Bradley v. Lehighton Area School District, AP 2019-2068 (Jan. 13, 2019), the OOR confirmed that the scope of videos covered by Act 22 (and, therefore, beyond the reach of the RTKL) is significantly broader than many...more
In Serfass v. Northampton County, AP 2019-1664 (Nov. 7, 2019), the Requester sought 911 call records. The County denied the Request, arguing that the responsive records were exempt Section 708(b)(18) of the RTKL, which...more
Previously, this blog address how the Office of Open Records, in Steinheiser v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, AP 2019-1877 (Nov. 6, 2019), confirmed that local agencies are not required to provide original...more
In Steinheiser v. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, AP 2019-1877 (Nov. 6, 2019), the Requester sought the business card of SEPTA’s Open Records Officer. In response, SEPTA provided a scanned copy of the card. ...more
In Maciejewski v. Southern Columbia Area School District, AP 2019-1094 (Sept 16, 2019), the Request sought all emails between 10 District email addresses over a 14-day time frame. The District argued that certain responsive...more
In an important decision for all law enforcement agencies, the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County quashed a civil subpoena directed to a local police department. The subpoena sought a toxicology report that the...more