ACLU-DE Challenges Excessive Fees for Public Information Requests

New Castle County, DE—Yesterday, the ACLU of Delaware filed a complaint in the Superior Court of Delaware after receiving unusually high fee charges in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from Delaware school districts.

The civil rights organization sent FOIA requests to all Delaware school districts to receive updated information about their English/Multi Language Learner programs. Under the Delaware FOIA statute, public agencies are required to “make every effort to ensure that administrative fees are minimized” when fulfilling information requests. This is to ensure that members of the general public are not priced out of their right to information about the actions of Delaware’s public institutions.

Most school districts fulfilled the requests about language programs without issue or fees, as they have done previously. However, three districts—Cape Henlopen, Christina, and Woodbridge—quoted charges of approximately $3,438, $1,934, and $2,000 respectively for the requests. This was done at an excessive hourly rate for an inexplicably high number of administrative hours, despite fulfilling similar requests the prior year with no charges.

“The public has a right to know the inner workings of our education system, and that should not be dependent on whether they can afford exorbitant fees,” said Mike Brickner, executive director of the ACLU-DE. “These fees would prevent most in the public from accessing vital information about a critical issue in our community—and that is simply unacceptable.”

The ACLU of Delaware is challenging the practice of imposing high fees on FOIA requests as both a violation of the Freedom of Information Act, and a barrier to government transparency and accountability.