Public Records Request
The Washington State Public Records Act, RCW 42.56 provides for the release of public records maintained by a public agency, such as the school district, with some exceptions. School district records relating to the conduct of operations and functions of the District that have been prepared, owned, used or retained by the District in any format are public records to which members of the public may request access.
When processing such requests, the District will provide the fullest assistance to the requestor and provide a response in the most timely manner possible. View Lake Washington School District's full public access to district records policy and public access to district records procedure for more information.
Requests by current employees or their union representatives for employment records should be made to human resources. Requests for student records by a current or former student or by the student’s parent/guardian should be directed to the building administrator at the student’s school.
| Lake Washington School District #414 ATTN: Public Information Department PO Box 97039 Redmond, WA 98073-9739 |
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| Fax | 425-936-1213 |
| In person | LWSD Resource Center 16250 NE 74th Street, Redmond, WA 98052 |
How public records requests are processed
Order of Processing Requests
The District will typically process requests in the order received. However, requests may also be processed out of order if doing so allows the most requests to be processed in the most efficient manner.
Central Review
Records requests not made to the Public Records Officer of the District will be forwarded by building level administrators, program administrators, or other staff receiving the request to the Public Records Officer for processing.
Five-Day Response
Within five (5) business days of receipt of a request, the Public Records Officer will do one or more of the following:
- Provide copies of the record(s) requested or make the record available for inspection—or, in the alternative, provide an internet address and link to the District’s website where the specific record can be accessed (provided that the requestor has not notified the District that he or she cannot access the records through the internet); or
- Acknowledge that the District has received the request and provide a reasonable estimate of the time it will require to fully respond; or
- Acknowledge that the District has received the request, and ask the requestor to provide clarification for a request that is unclear, while providing to the greatest extent possible a reasonable estimate of the time the District will require to respond to the request if it is not clarified; or
- Deny the request (although no request will be denied solely on the basis that the request is overbroad).
If the requestor fails to respond to the District’s request for clarification within 30 days and the entire request is unclear, the District may close the request and not further respond to it. If the requestor fails to respond to the District’s request for clarification within 30 days, and part of the request is unclear, the District will respond to the portion of the request that is clear and may close the remainder of the request. In unusual circumstances, the District may also seek a court order enjoining disclosure pursuant to law.
The District may deny a bot request that is one of multiple requests from the requestor within a twenty-four hour period if the District establishes that responding to the multiple bot requests would cause excessive interference with the District’s other essential functions. The District may deem a request to be a bot request when the District reasonably believes the request was automatically generated by a computer program or script.
If the District does not respond in writing within five business days of receipt of the request for disclosure, the requestor should contact the Public Records Officer to determine the reason for the failure to respond.
Cost of providing records
The District has determined that calculating the actual costs of providing records in response to requests would be unduly burdensome because it would deprive its students of essential educational resources which support the District’s mission. The District, therefore, is using the statutory default fees for providing copies of records, which are as follows:
- 15 cents per paper page
- 10 cents a page scanned into electronic format
- 5 cents for four files or attachments and provided by electronic delivery
- 10 cents for a gigabyte of electronic records transmission
- The actual costs of storage media, container, envelop, postage and delivery
- Charges can be combined if more than one type of charge applies
Contact information
The current Public Records Officer of the District may be reached at the District’s Support Services Office as follows:
Phone: 425-936-1200
Email: publicrecordsrequest@lwsd.org