Lowry v. Rose Tree Media School District, AP 2024-2478 (Dec. 5, 2024). The Office of Open Records holds that registration forms for a cross-country meet that was organized and run by a booster group on school district...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
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
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
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
School District Effort to Prohibit Students’ Political Attire Enjoined - Morgan v. Mifflin County School District, Case No. 1:2--CV-01930 (M.D. Pa. 2020). The United States District Court for the Middle District of...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
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 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
Under Pennsylvania’s Act 22 of 2017, a public school entity will be considered a “law enforcement agency” if it employs a court-approved “school police officer.” That status under the Act removes the school entity from...more
In Ruland v. Southern York County School District, AP 2019-0567 (Aug. 8, 2019), the OOR concluded that, in certain circumstances, emails from community members to an agency can be public records. In this case, the...more
In Galvez v. West York Area School District, AP 2019-0267 (May 15, 2019), a reporter requested a portion of a school bus surveillance video depicting a student altercation. The District denied the request, arguing that the...more
In Guydish v. Crestwood School District, AP 2019-0643, the requester sought copies of the statements of financial interests filed by the school district’s current school board members pursuant to the Public Official and...more
Commonwealth Court Holds That School Surveillance Videos Showing Interactions Between Adults And Students Are Not Education Records Under FERPA and Are Public Records Under The RTKL - Easton Area Sch. Dist. v. Miller, 191...more
In the previous post we discussed how a “common sense” reason for denying a request (e.g., the requested records are subject to a pending RTKL appeal), was rejected by the OOR because that reason was not supported by the...more