ACLU-DE Challenges Excessive Fees from School Districts for FOIA Requests

Several Delaware school districts now charge what the ACLU says are high fees for Freedom of Information Act requests. The ACLU of Delaware filed a complaint in Superior Court of Delaware challenging those high fees – against Cape Henlopen, Woodbridge and the Christina School Districts, which charged between $1900 and $3500 for FOIA requests – however in previous years those requests were granted at no charge. ACLU officials say that these high fees are not only a violation of FOIA, but also a barrier to government transparency and accountability.

Additional information from the ACLU release:  

The civil rights organization sent FOIA requests to all Delaware school districts to receive updated information about their English/Multi Language Learner programs. Under the Delaware FOIA statute, public agencies are required to “make every effort to ensure that administrative fees are minimized” when fulfilling information requests. This is to ensure that members of the general public are not priced out of their right to information about the actions of Delaware’s public institutions.

Most school districts fulfilled the requests about language programs without issue or fees, as they have done previously. However, three districts—Cape Henlopen, Christina, and Woodbridge—quoted charges of approximately $3,438, $1,934, and $2,000 respectively for the requests. This was done at an excessive hourly rate for an inexplicably high number of administrative hours, despite fulfilling similar requests the prior year with no charges.

“The public has a right to know the inner workings of our education system, and that should not be dependent on whether they can afford exorbitant fees,” said Mike Brickner, executive director of the ACLU-DE. “These fees would prevent most in the public from accessing vital information about a critical issue in our community—and that is simply unacceptable.”