Jessica Berry v. Framingham, City of - Public Schools Department (SPR 20190087)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords January 18, 2019 SPR19/0087 Philip B. Benjamin, Esq. Benjamin & White, P.C. City of Framingham 600 Worcester Road, Suite 401 Framingham, MA 01702 Dear Attorney Benjamin: I have received your petition on behalf of the City of Framingham (City) seeking an extension of time to produce records. G. L. c. 66, § IO(c); see also 950 C.M.R. 36.06(4)(b). As required by law, the City furnished a copy of this petition to the requestor. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c), lO(d)(iv). In a request received by the City on December 28, 2018, Jessica Berry on behalf of Boston College Legal Services Lab (BC Legal Services) requested four pages of records pertaining to "long-term suspended or expelled students from Framingham Public Schools" and "manifestation determination meetings held or required to be held for special education students of Framingham Public Schools." Petitions for an extension of time Under the Public Records Law, upon a showing of good cause, the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) may grant a single extension to an agency not to exceed 20 business days and a single extension to a municipality not to exceed 30 business days. In determining whether there has been a showing of good cause, the Supervisor shall consider, but shall not be limited to considering: (i) the need to search for, collect, segregate or examine records; (ii) the scope of redaction required to prevent unlawful disclosure; (iii) the capacity or the normal business hours of operation of the agency or municipality to produce the request without the extension; (iv) efforts undertaken by the agency or municipality in fulfilling the current request and previous requests; (v) whether the request, either individually or as part of a series of requests from the same requestor, is frivolous or intended to harass or intimidate the agency or municipality; and One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre• pre@sec.state.ma.us

Philip B. Benjamin, Esq. SPR19/0087 Page2 January 18, 2019 (vi) the public interest served by expeditious disclosure. G. L. c. 66, § lO(c). If the Supervisor determines that the request is part of a series of contemporaneous requests that are frivolous or designed to intimidate or harass, and the requests are not intended for the broad dissemination of information to the public about actual or alleged government activity, the Supervisor may grant a longer extension or relieve the agency or municipality of its obligation to provide copies of the records sought. Id. The filing of a petition does not affect the requirement that a Records Access Officer (RAO) shall provide an initial response to a requester within ten business days after receipt of a request for public records. 950 C.M.R. 36.06(4 )(b ). Current petition The City is seeking "an extension of time of 30 business days to comply with the public records request." The City indicates "[a]ttorneys for both sides are currently in discussions to clarify and hopefully limit the scope of the Request ... this petition is being filed in order to comply with Public Records Law and protect Framingham's rights." In support of its petition, the City states "[s]ome of the records described in the Request may contain personally identifiable information which is exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Law, M.G.L. c. 4, §7(26) (a) and (c)." Further, the City explains "the Request will require review and redaction of personally identifiable information." The City indicates "[a] preliminary review shows that there are an estimated 2100 external suspensions ... the District's system does not code separately for short-term and long-term suspensions, so the District would need to review each suspension to determine if the suspension was short-term or long-term." The City further explains "the Request requires search, segregation, and redaction of student specific documents" and estimate "an average of 10 minutes per suspension, that would be a total 350 hours." The City states "approximately 25% of the 2100 external suspensions were at elementary schools ... 2 hours per school, for 9 elementary schools, that would be a total of 18 hours for elementary schools" and "approximately 1600 of the external suspensions were at the middle schools and high school. .10 minutes per suspension would be total of 266 hours. Total estimated hours=284." The City notes "the District's need to respond to other numerous Public Records Requests filed with the District." Under the updated Public Records Law and Access Regulations, a municipality, when appropriate, can suggest a reasonable modification of the scope of the request or offer to assist the requester to modify the scope of the request if doing so would enable the municipality to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably. G. L. c. 66, § 1O (b )(vii); 950 C.M.R. 36.06(2)(g). The City indicated they are working with BC Legal Services to modify, and "hopefully limit the scope."

Philip B. Benjamin, Esq. SPR19/0087 Page 3 January 18, 2019 Conclusion Accordingly, I find that in light of the City's discussions with BC Legal Services to modify the request, it is unnecessary to opine on the City's petition to relieve it of its obligation to fulfill the request at this time. See G.L. c. 66, § lO(b)(vii); see also G.L. c. 66, § lO(a)(i) (a request must reasonably describes the public record sought). Upon receiving clarification from BC Legal Services about the scope of this request, the City must provide the records in a manner consistent with the Public Records Law and its Regulations. Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: BC Legal Services Jessica Berry