Why Should Delaware Care?
All records created by government officials belong to the public, and those that are not explicitly exempted from public release should be accessible to any individual. As such, Freedom of Information Act requests are a key tool for Delawareans to learn about how they government works. But, for many, the process that takes places after a request is submitted is little known.
For many people who file a Delaware Freedom of Information Act request, the state’s process for retrieving records can look like a black box.
After a request goes in, it is not always clear how the public’s records are retrieved, or why the process can sometimes take many months to complete.
Spotlight Delaware recently posed those questions to state officials following an open records request submitted to all 19 of the state’s school districts.
On July 1, Spotlight Delaware submitted the school district request for emails sent between superintendents and other staff members that contained words like “immigration,” “ICE,” and “immigration enforcement.”
Once retrieved, the records could become part of Spotlight Delaware’s ongoing reporting on how the Trump administration’s border and immigration enforcement policies may be impacting Delaware’s schools.
While a response to a Freedom of Information Act request is required within 15 business days, nearly all of Delaware’s school districts replied before the deadline with identical statements.
Fifteen school districts’ responses all said they were receiving assistance from the Delaware Department of Technology and Information. They estimated that their districts would not be able to produce documents until Aug. 15, “due to the likely need for review by legal counsel, and the fact that the records are in the possession of DTI.”
DTI refers to the Delaware Department of Technology, which maintains the technological backbone of the state. Agencies throughout the state have different standards for records retention, and the types of records matter too.
Get Involved
Submit your own FOIA request to Delaware government through this online portal. If you need to appeal the government’s response to a FOIA request, email the Delaware Department of Justice at opengovernment@delaware.gov.
Many Delawareans do not know what happens when they submit an information request, and it is not immediately clear what process requests go through before documents are given to the requestor.
Spotlight Delaware requested an interview with the Delaware Department of Technology and Information to understand what happens to a request after it is passed along to the agency.
The Department of Technology and Information would only agree to answer questions over email.
There are several records DTI can retrieve through its eRecords Request Form, such as emails and voicemails, Microsoft Teams Chats and Workspaces, phone logs, and more.
Once an organization receives an information request, such as emails containing keywords, the organization’s authorizing official — such as a superintendent of a school district, cabinet secretaries, or other officials depending on the agency — determines if assistance from DTI is needed and submits the request.
Only an authorizing official can bring the request from the organization to DTI, according to the eRecords request policy language.
After an agency submits its request, DTI conducts its own policy compliance review.
The State Chief Information Officer approves the request after it’s found to be compliant, and DTI works to secure the requested records.
The process “can involve multiple systems and multiple record custodians, depending on the scope of the request,” DTI’s Director of Government Affairs and Media Relations Christina Dirksen wrote in an email to Spotlight Delaware.
The time it takes for DTI to provide the requested data to the agency varies and depends on the “accuracy of the eRecords request form,” the amount of data involved, and the number of systems that need to be searched, Dirksen wrote.
While Dirksen said straightforward requests can usually be completed within 10 business days, larger or more complex requests may take longer.
Once the data is located, DTI “extracts and prepares it in a secure environment” and provides access to the agency, Dirksen wrote.
Nearly seven weeks after Spotlight Delaware originally submitted its information requests to all of Delaware’s 19 school districts, some school officials say they still are awaiting answers from DTI regarding cost estimates.
Those responses also come more than one week after the Aug. 15 deadline, which multiple school districts said was due to DTI’s timeline for retrieving the records.
