SB 5920 — School district PRA requests

Summary

Providing protections for school districts against burdensome public records requests.

Bill Text

Compared against the Revised Code of Washington as published AI-generated reading aid — verify against the official bill.

This bill amends 4 section(s) of the Revised Code of Washington: RCW 42.56.070; RCW 42.56.080; RCW 42.56.060; RCW 42.56.520.

• RCW 42.56.070

  (a) (A) (B) (ii) (A) (B) (b) → as fol 1) Eac able s the or (9) lysi r d ng o ts ) D rat pu nt on o bst ; ) In ret d af Jun ) P y d af Jun les bli d to equ on av ng o pda s fo eco such dex atio su nt th emen of s pr ed pera s. ins ion the tua s. ) A ic age ag d by ag ) It be ) Pa s a ter her )(a) h bli spe t c s , o bli o min d b age (A) (I) The actual cost of the paper and the per page cost for use of agency copying equipment; and (II) The actual cost of the electronic production or file transfer of the record and the use of any cloud-based data storage and processing service. (B) In determining other actual costs for providing copies of public records, an agency may include all costs directly incident to: (I) Shipping such public records, including the cost of postage or delivery charges and the cost of any container or envelope used; and (II) Transmitting such records in an electronic format, including the cost of any transmission charge and use of any physical media device provided by the agency. (ii) In determining the actual costs for providing copies of public records, an agency may not include staff salaries, benefits, or other general administrative or overhead charges, unless those costs are directly related to the actual cost of copying the public records. Staff time to copy and send the requested public records may be included in an agency's costs. (b)(i) Except for requests by news media, parents or guardians of students enrolled in the district, or district employees, school districts may establish a supplementary cost schedule, in addition to any determination of costs under (a) of this subsection, for requests that are overly burdensome in terms of amount of information, staff time, materials produced, or other administrative or overhead costs. (ii) A school district must notify the requestor when such a cost schedule would apply, provide a total of the costs, and receive acceptance from the requestor for the charges before processing the request. (iii) The supplementary cost schedule may be based on the amount of information, staff time, materials produced, or other administrative or overhead costs. Costs must be limited to the direct costs of processing the request. Processing costs may include costs associated with staff time used to locate, compile, produce, review, or copy records, including reviewing and responding to the request. Any charge or rate applied for the use of staff time may not exceed the hourly rate of the staff fulfilling the request. (iv) Any district opting to utilize a supplementary cost schedule must adopt a formal school district policy that is publicly available. (v) Any individual may request a waiver of the supplementary cost schedule based on a showing of financial hardship. (vi) The Washington state school directors' association may establish a model supplementary cost schedule and model policy for when school districts may impose such costs, including application of a waiver based on financial hardship. (8) This chapter shall not be construed as giving authority to any agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives to give, sell or provide access to lists of individuals requested for commercial purposes, and agencies, the office of the secretary of the senate, and the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives shall not do so unless specifically authorized or directed by law: PROVIDED, HOWEVER, That lists of applicants for professional licenses and of professional licensees shall be made available to those professional associations or educational organizations recognized by their professional licensing or examination board, upon payment of a reasonable charge therefor: PROVIDED FURTHER, That such recognition may be refused only for a good cause pursuant to a hearing under the provisions of chapter 34.05 RCW, the administrative procedure act. (9)(a) Except for requests made by news media, parents or guardians of students enrolled

  amended

• RCW 42.56.080

  Agencies No → as follows: (1)(a) A public records request must be for identifiable records. A request for all or substantially all records prepared, owned, used, or retained by an agency is not a valid request for identifiable records under this chapter, provided that a request for all records regarding a particular topic or containing a particular keyword or name shall not be considered a request for all of an agency's records. (b) A request for a recording required to be maintained by a school district board of directors under RCW 42.30.035(2) shall only be considered a valid request for an identifiable record when the date of the recording, or a range of dates, is specified in the request. When searching for and providing identifiable recordings, no search criteria except date must be considered by the school district. (2) Public records shall be available for inspection and copying, and agencies shall, upon request for identifiable public records, make them promptly available to any person including, if applicable, on a partial or installment basis as records that are part of a larger set of requested records are assembled or made ready for inspection or disclosure. Except as provided in RCW 42.56.070(9), agencies shall not deny a request for identifiable rd olely on the basis that the request is overbroad. al t distinguish among persons requesting records, and s l not be required to provide information as to the t request except to establish whether inspection and ld olate RCW 42.56.070(8) or 42.56.240(14), or other h mpts or prohibits disclosure of specific information t ertain persons. Agency facilities shall be made a person for the copying of public records except when ex that this would unreasonably disrupt the operations nc Agencies shall honor requests received in person ge 's normal office hours, or by mail or email, for ic records unless exempted by provisions of this Except for requests made to school districts, no agencies may recommend that requestors submit requests using an agency provided form or web page. A records request to a school district must be made to the designated public records officer, as described in RCW 42.56.580 and section 3 of this act, including the use of any school district provided form or web page. (3) An agency may deny a bot request that is one of multiple requests from the requestor to the agency within a twenty-four hour period, if the agency establishes that responding to the multiple requests would cause excessive interference with other essential functions of the agency. For purposes of this subsection, "bot request" means a request for public records that an agency reasonably believes was automatically generated by a computer program or script.

  amended

• RCW 42.56.060

  read as follows: (1) No public agency, public official, public employee, or custodian shall be liable, nor shall a cause of action exist, for any loss or damage based upon the release of a public record if the public agency, public official, public employee, or custodian acted in good faith in attempting to comply with the provisions of this chapter. (2) No school district or school district employee shall be liable, nor shall a cause of action exist, for any loss or damage based upon the denial or delay of the release of a public record if the school district or school district employee acted in good faith in attempting to comply with the provisions of this chapter.

  amended

• RCW 42.56.520

  the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives must respond in one of the ways provided in this subsection (1): (a) Providing the record; (b) Providing an internet address and link on the agency's website to the specific records requested, except that if the requester notifies the agency that he or she cannot access the records through the internet, then the agency must provide copies of the record or allow the requester to view copies using an agency computer; (c) Acknowledging that the agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives has received the request and providing a reasonable estimate of the time the agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives will require to respond to the request; (d) Acknowledging that the agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives has received the request and asking the requestor to provide clarification for a request that is unclear, and providing, to the greatest extent possible, a reasonable estimate of the time the agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives will require to respond to the request if it is not clarified; or (e) Denying the public record request. (2)(a) Additional time required to respond to a request may be based upon the need to clarify the intent of the request, to locate and assemble the information requested, to notify third persons or agencies affected by the request, or to determine whether any of the information requested is exempt and that a denial should be made as to all or part of the request. (b)(i) School districts are authorized additional time to respond to out-of-state requests. (ii) A school district must provide an out-of-state requestor a reasonable estimate of the time the district will require to respond to the request. (c)(i) For a school district of the second class as defined in also be based upon the resources of the school district, including available staff and administrative or overhead resources. (ii) A school district of the second class must provide a requestor a reasonable estimate of the time the district will require to respond to the request. (3)(a) In acknowledging receipt of a public record request that is unclear, an agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives may ask the requestor to clarify what information the requestor is seeking. (b) If the requestor fails to respond to an agency request to clarify the request, and the entire request is unclear, the agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives need not respond to it. Otherwise, the agency must respond, pursuant to this section, to those portions of the request that are clear. (4) Denials of requests must be accompanied by a written statement of the specific reasons therefor. Agencies, the office of the secretary of the senate, and the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives shall establish mechanisms for the most prompt possible review of decisions denying inspection, and such review shall be deemed completed at the end of the second business day following the denial of inspection and shall constitute final agency action or final action by the office of the secretary of the senate or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives for the purposes of judicial review.

  amended

Action History

1. January 12, 2026

   First reading, referred to State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections.

Sponsors

• (Wellman) · Primary

Subjects