Kayla Fox v. Dartmouth, Town of - Public Schools (SPR 20250659)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records March 14, 2025 SPR25/0659 Kathleen Genthner Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent Dartmouth Public Schools 8 Bush Street Dartmouth, MA 02748 Dear Ms. Genthner: I have received the petition of Ms. Kayla Fox appealing the nonresponse of the Dartmouth Public Schools (School) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On February 19, 2025, Ms. Fox requested the following: [1.] An extract of your records management system or database that includes each school-related arrest and each referral to law enforcement conducted during the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023 school year (up until the day the records are produced). . .[;] [2.] If such an extract of the database in question 1 is not possible, please provide police reports and school incident reports on each school-related arrest conducted during the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023 school year (up until the day the records are produced)[;] [3.] Please provide with an unduplicated count of arrested students for each school year including 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2022- 2023 school year (up until the day the records are produced)[;] [4.] If such an extract of the database in question 1 is not possible, please provide police reports and school incident reports on each referral to law enforcement conducted during the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2022- 2023 school year (up until the day the records are produced), per the U.S Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection for that year. For each referral to law enforcement, please include the school, demographic, and incident information described in DESE’s School Safety and Discipline Report Data Handbook V. 20.0[;] 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

Kathleen Genthner SPR25/0659 Page 2 March 14, 2025 [5.] Please also provide an unduplicated counts of referrals to law enforcement (as defined above) for each school year including the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020 2021, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023 school year (up until the day the records are produced)[.] Claiming to not yet have received responsive records, Ms. Fox petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR25/0659, was opened as a result. Subsequently, I learned the School intends on providing a written response to Ms. Fox. Accordingly, the School is ordered to provide Ms. Fox with said response in accordance with the Public Records Law, its Regulations and this order within ten business days. A copy of any such response must be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of the response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. Ms. Fox may appeal the substantive nature of the School’s response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Kayla Fox