Stephanie Lundquist-Arora | August 14, 2024
(Washington Examiner) — Last week, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for simple demographic information pertaining to students at Fairfax County’s six failing high schools. It is likely that the information exists in the district’s Student Information System database. If the data were available in the Virginia Department of Education’s School Quality Profiles, which it is not, it would take about 10 minutes to collect.
The district’s FOIA office has a long history of overcharging Fairfax residents for access to information. This incident appears to be no exception. On Aug. 9, a FOIA officer sent me an email that said, “The estimated costs to respond to your request under VFOIA are $105.00 (3 hours at the rate of $35/hour).”
Later that day, I questioned the cost. I wrote: “I’m confused about the estimated labor time of three hours. If this data were publicly available on the Virginia website, it would take me less than 10 minutes to pull. Why is this request so labor intensive on your end?”
Up until the time of publication of this article, the FOIA office has not answered my question regarding the inflated labor estimate.
As one of my friends pointed out, exaggerated labor estimates at the high rate of $35 per hour might not just be a deterrent from requesting information, but also how the district tries to cover its extensive legal fees when parents discover its corruption.