Public Record Request Data Quality
Disparities Across School Districts
Public Record Requests (PRR) for data regarding school-based arrests were filed by CPIAC with over 100 school districts and police departments across Massachusetts. Gaps in the data received in response to these requests highlight disparate levels of disclosure by public agencies, calling for greater accountability and rewarding transparency and best data collection practices. It has also guided us to identify critical questions that merit further original research regarding the responses and the quality of data we receive. Data will eventually be requested from all school districts and corresponding police departments within the state of Massachusetts. The data being evaluated is from the first round of requests filed by CPIAC.
Responsiveness
District Request Status
Districts are categorized as pending or no response due to insufficient or lack of response to PRRs.
Total Time to Resolution (in business days, excluding holidays & weekends)
Districts included in the timeline responded to our FOIA requests with responsive documents, but not necessarily within the 10-day statute. Data types received include arrests, summons, or referrals.
District PRR Timeline
Initial Response within 10 Days
After a request is submitted to the RAO, the agency must respond within ten business days (not including weekends or holidays). Usually, “Day 1” is the day after the request is submitted. If agencies take more than 10 business days to respond, they cannot charge fees to produce the responsive documents, however, this often does not stop them from trying. Additionally, agencies cannot charge for information that is removed from a record unless such segregation or redaction is required by law or approved by the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor) through a petition. Most agencies requested did not respond within the ten-day statute.
If the Division of Public Records determines that the agency needs to produce the records, they will order the agency to produce them. However, MA public records law does not have meaningful consequences to actually compel an agency to produce records. If the agency still does not provide the records, it is possible to re-appeal with the Division of Public Records.
Extension Requested
Agencies can petition for an extension of time to produce the requested documents, but the petition does not remove the statutory responsibility to provide a written response within the 10 business day statute following the PRR.
Format
Machine Readability
Data provided by agencies in response to our request criteria was highly variable and inconsistently formatted. The data was evaluated based on whether the data was provided in an easily digestible, standards-compliant, digital format.
Structured
PRRs were submitted to both the school district and the police department. Response origin, data formatting, and data consistency varied by district. All districts provided data in a structured format.
Data Format by District
Standards
Unique Data Types
Data is reported using common data types such as booleans, integers, strings, and dates.
Unique Values
Data is reported in a consistent manner. For example, is “Male” inconsistently reported as “M”, “Male”, “Mal”, etc.
Vocabulary
The data includes column headers that are clear, descriptive, and follows conventions.
Unique Identifiers
The data includes unique identifiers that allow joining records and tracking of relationships between data entities.
Schema
The data includes a schema description.
Standards Used by District
Completeness
The PRRs requested specific data labels to be included in an agency’s response, but not all agencies provided the information. Labels requested include date, time, charge (or charges), arrest or referral, sex, age, race, ethnicity, disability status, student - y/n, office name, and badge number.
Cells
Responses to the PRRs included either valid or invalid data. Valid data is a cell not left blank including a cell labeled “Unknown”. An “Unknown” value indicates that the data is not known or cannot be determined. Invalid data is a cell left blank or labeled “Field-Not-Available”. A “Field-Not-Available” value is an indication that the data is missing.
% Completeness by District
Labels
Observed Reporting Issues
Race and ethnicity were requested as separate criteria in the PRRs. However, race and ethnicity were often combined into one data column, influencing diversity representation within the dataset and making it difficult to examine racial and ethnic discrepancies.
Areas of Improvement
Standardize how school districts or police departments report or log arrest and referral data
Require action and more involvement from the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office regarding responsiveness to PRR
Train and prepare Records Access Officers (RAO) on how to respond to PRRs