Records Requests

Public Records Request Update

September 2, 2026 

As the demand for public records has increased substantially, the District is taking steps to meet its public records obligations while preserving staff capacity to carry out essential District functions.

For most of the past 10 years, the volume of public records requests received by the District was relatively manageable. More recently, however, requests have grown significantly in both volume and complexity. 

A Sharp Increase in Public Records Requests

Since January 2026, the District has experienced an unprecedented increase in the volume, frequency, and complexity of public records requests. 

In 2025, the District received 53 public records requests. In just the first eight months of 2026, the District has already received 151 requests—nearly three times the total received in all of last year. In fact, the 151 requests received so far this year exceed the combined total received over the eight-year period from 2017 through 2024.

As you can imagine, responding to these requests has required a significant amount of staff time and District resources to identify, collect, review, redact, and produce responsive records.

The District has also received multiple requests from the same requestor or requestors. More than 47 of the requests this year were submitted by one person whose requests are complex and require extensive searches and resources. This volume, alongside requests from others, requires the District to balance timely access to public records with serving all requestors fairly and maintaining essential school operations.

A single public records request can require substantial staff time and resources. For example, one request may produce tens of thousands of emails or thousands of pages of records that must be individually reviewed before they can be released.

That review is an important and often time-intensive part of the public records process. Staff must review records for information that state or federal law requires or permits the District to withhold, such as protected student information, certain employee personal information, privileged legal communications, and other exempt material. When information is withheld or redacted, the District must also identify the applicable legal exemption.

The current volume and complexity of requests have required staff to divert substantial time from other essential responsibilities.

RCW 42.56.100 directs public agencies to provide full access to public records while preventing records work from excessively interfering with the agency's other essential functions. Key changes to Procedure 4040P, and their effect on the public records process, are described below.

Updating Our Public Records Process

To ensure the District can continue meeting its public records obligations while maintaining the staffing and resources necessary to provide essential services, the District has updated Procedure 4040P for managing public records requests.

The updated process is intended to create a more consistent and sustainable approach to processing requests. It will allow the District to continue providing access to public records while balancing the significant staff time required to process requests with other vital District responsibilities.

The District is also in the process of implementing an online public records request system designed to make submitting, tracking, and responding to requests more efficient.

These changes do not diminish the District’s commitment to transparency or public access to records. Rather, they are intended to establish a sustainable process that allows the District to fulfill its public records obligations while ensuring staff can continue supporting students, schools, families, and the broader community.

How Multiple Requests Will Be Handled

Requests from the same person will be processed one at a time, in the order received. 

In order to provide the fullest assistance to all records requestors and to prevent excessive interference with other essential functions of the District, when the same requestor submits multiple separate requests, the District may queue those requests and process them in the order in which they were received. The District is not required to work on a requestor’s later request until the requestor’s earlier request has been completed and closed.

If a requestor who has submitted multiple requests would like the District to reprioritize a later-submitted request, work on that requestor’s earlier requests may be paused until the prioritized request has been completed and closed. Requestors are responsible for informing the District if they want to reprioritize the fulfillment of their requests. The Public Records Officer may ask a requestor to prioritize the requestor’s pending requests.

Click here to view the procedure that outlines in greater detail how multiple requests will be handled.

Dedicated Time to Fulfilling Records Requests

The procedure now establishes clear guidelines for the staff time available to devote to public record requests – 20 hours per week for the Public Records Officer (PRO) and five hours for each department liaison. For the PRO, this represents more than twice the amount of time historically spent on processing public records requests per week. 

These parameters provide transparency and a consistent basis for developing reasonable response estimates. They will be reviewed at least annually. Time set aside to respond to requests may be adjusted based on factors such as the volume of requests and available District resources, while maintaining an appropriate balance between timely fulfillment of public records requests and avoiding excessive interference with the District’s other essential functions.

If circumstances affect the District’s ability to meet an estimated response date, the requestor will be notified in writing and provided with a revised estimate.

What Is Not Changing

Anyone may request District records, for any reason or without stating  a reason. We will continue to provide an initial response within five business days, provide a written explanation and legal citation any time we withhold or redact information, and work with requestors to clarify or narrow a request when doing so is helpful. None of these changes narrows anyone's rights. They represent a change in sequence and transparency, not in access. Our commitment to providing the fullest assistance the law requires is unchanged.

If You Have a Pending Request With Us

Our Public Records Officer will contact you directly in the coming weeks with a copy of the updated procedure and an explanation of how your specific request(s) will be handled going forward.

Where to Learn More

The full text of Procedure 4040P is available here.

When the new online request portal launches, instructions for using it will be posted on the same page. 

Questions may be directed to Holly Pfenniger, Public Records Officer, at publicrecordsrequest@longviewschools.org or (360) 575-7016.