To inspect data or request copies of data that the District may have, make a written request to the District’s Data Practice Compliance Official.  You may submit your request via mail, or email.

Your written request should include:

• That you are making a request under the Data Practices Act, (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13);
• Whether you would like to inspect the data, have copies of the data, or both;
• A clear description of the data you would like to inspect or have copied.

Prior to fulfilling a request, the District may contact you for the following reasons:

• To ask for clarification or additional information to help fulfill the request;
• To discuss options for improving the manageability of the request;
• To advise you if the request may involve a charge or require pre-payment.

If you request access for the purpose of inspection, the District will not assess a charge or require you to pay a fee.

In order to fulfill a request, the District will do one of the following:

1. If the District does not have the data, the Data Practices Officer will notify you as soon as reasonably possible.
2. If the District has the data but the data is not public, the Data Practices Officer will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and specify in writing the legal authority for the decision to withhold the release of the data.
3. If the District has the data, and the data is public, the District will respond to the request appropriately and promptly, within a reasonable amount of time by doing one of the following:
   • Arrange a date, time, and place to inspect data at no charge.
   • Provide copies of the data as soon as reasonably possible at the cost specified.

You may choose to pick up copies, or have them shipped at the specified rate.

The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act does not require the creation or collection of new data in response to a data request, nor is the District required to provide data in a specific form or arrangement if not kept in that form or arrangement. Data prepared for inspection is typically always printed as a hard copy.

The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act does not require the District to answer questions that are not requests for data. Nevertheless, you may seek to know the meaning of data that has been retrieved. 

If you request copies of the data, the Data Practices Officer may require you to pay the actual costs of searching for and retrieving government data, including the cost of employee time, and for making, certifying, and sending the copies of the data.

However, if 100 or fewer pages of paper copies are requested, actual costs shall not be used, and instead, the District may charge no more than $0.25 for each page copied.

For requests totaling more than 100 pages, the District may charge the “actual costs” for producing the data, plus a per-page-cost for each paper copy produced.

• “Actual costs“ for producing public data of more than 100 pages are computed by applying the lowest, hourly pay rate of the staff member who is authorized to handle such data for:
  • Searching for and retrieving data (if the requestor is not the data subject).
  • Making, certifying, sorting, and mailing the data.

For Persons who ARE the Subject of the Data Being Requested:

Data About You
The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act says that data subjects have certain rights related to a government entity collecting, creating, and keeping government data about them.  You are the subject of data when you can be identified from the data.  Government data is a term that means all recorded information a government entity has, including paper, email, CD-ROMs, photographs, etc.

Classification of Data About You
The Data Practices Act presumes that all government data are public unless a state or federal law says that the data are not public.  Data about you are classified by state law as public, private, or confidential.  See below for examples.

Public Data
We must give public data to anyone who asks; it does not matter who is asking for the data or why.

Private Data
We cannot give private data to the general public, but you have access when the data are about you.  We can share your private data with you, with someone who has your permission, with District staff who need the data to do their work, and as permitted by law or court order.

Confidential Data
Confidential data have the most protection.  Neither the public nor you can get access even when the confidential data is about you.  We can share confidential data about you with District staff who need the data to do their work and others as permitted by law or court order.  We cannot give you access to confidential data.

Your Rights under the Data Practices Act

Your Access to Your Data
You have the right to look at (inspect), free of charge, public and private data that we keep about you.  You also have the right to get copies of public and private data about you.  The Data Practices Act allows us to charge for copies.  You have the right to look at data, free of charge, before deciding to request copies.

Also, if you ask, we will tell you whether we keep data about you and whether or not the data are public, private, or confidential.

If you are a parent, you have the right to look at and get copies of public and private data about your minor children (under the age of 18).  If you are a legally appointed guardian, you have the right to look at and get copies of public and private data about an individual for whom you are appointed guardian.

When We Collect Data from You
When we ask students or employees to provide data about themselves in a disciplinary meeting that is not public, we must give a notice.  In this instance, the notice is called a “Tennessen” warning. The notice controls what we do with the data that we collect from you. Usually, we can use and release the data only in the ways described in the notice. Other non-public data we collect on employees includes performance evaluations, job applications, etc. In the case of students, grades, special education reports, assignment requests are examples of non-public data.

We will ask for your written permission if we need to use or release private data about you in a different way, or if you ask us to release data to another person.  This permission is called informed consent.  If you want us to release data to another person, you may use the consent form.

Protecting your Data
The Data Practices Act requires us to protect your data.  We have established appropriate safeguards to ensure that your data are safe.  In the unfortunate event that we determine a security breach has occurred and an unauthorized person has gained access to your data, we will notify you as required by law.

When your Data are Inaccurate and/or Incomplete
You have the right to challenge the accuracy and/or completeness of public and private data about you.  You also have the right to appeal our decision.  If you are a minor, your parent or guardian has the right to challenge data about you.

How to Request Your Data

To inspect data or request copies of data that the District keeps about you, your minor children, or an individual for whom you have been appointed legal guardian, make a written request to the District’s Data Practice Compliance Officer.  You may submit your request via mail, or email.

Your written request should include:

• That you are making a request under the Data Practices Act, (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13), as a data subject, for data about you;
• Whether you would like to inspect the data, have copies of the data, or both;
• A clear description of the data you would like to inspect or have copied;
• Identity information that proves you are the data subject, or data subject’s parent or guardian; and
• Your mailing address (if you will not collect the data in person).

The School District requires proof of your identity (valid state ID such as a driver’s license, military ID, or passport) before we can respond to your request for data.  If you are requesting data about your minor child, you must show proof that you are the minor’s parent.  If you are a guardian, you must show legal documentation of your guardianship.

If you are unable to present identification in person, you must provide either notarized or certified copies. Such ID's are submitted along with you request.

The District will not transmit private data electronically under any circumstances.

How We Respond to a Data Request

Once you make your written request, we will work to process your request.  If it is not clear what data you are requesting, we will ask you for clarification.

• If we do not have the data, we will notify you in writing within 10 business days.
• If we have the data, but the data are confidential or private data that are not about you, we will notify you in writing within 10 business days and state which specific law says you cannot access the data.
• If we have the data, and the data are public or private data about you, we will respond to your request within 10 business days, by doing one of the following:
  • Arrange a date, time, and place to inspect data, for free, if your request is to look at the data
  • Provide you with copies of the data within 10 business days.  You may choose to pick up your copies, or we will mail them to you. We will also arrange for you to prepay for the copies.
• The School District may charge data subjects for copies of government data.  These charges are authorized under Minnesota Statutes, section 13.04, subd. 3.
  • 100 or fewer pages of black and white, letter or legal size paper copies may cost 25 cents for a one sided copy, or 50 cents for a two-sided copy. The charge for most other types of copies is the actual cost of making and certifying the copies.   In determining the actual costs of making copies, we factor in employee time, the cost of the material onto which we are copying the data (paper, CD, DVD, etc.) and mailing costs (if any).  If your request is for copies of data that we cannot reproduce ourselves, such as photographs, we will charge you the actual cost we must pay an outside vendor for copies.

The School District will waive charges if the cost to provide the data is less than the cost to process the payment.

After we have provided you with access to data about you, we do not have to show you the data again for 6 months unless there is a dispute or we collect or create new data about you.

If you do not understand some of the data (technical, abbreviations, or acronyms), please let us know.  We will give you an explanation if you ask.

The Data Practices Act does not require us to create or collect new data in response to a data request if we do not already have the data, or to provide data in a specific form or arrangement if we do not keep the data in the form or arrangement.  (For example, if the data you request are on paper only, we are not required to create electronic documents to respond to your request.)  If we agree to create data in response to your request, we will work with you on the details of your request, including cost and response time.

In addition, we are not required under the Data Practice Act to respond to questions that are not requests for data.

Consent to Release Data

If you wish to release your personal data, either to yourself or to an outside party, please complete the consent form below.

If you have a question about anything on this consent form, or would like more explanation before you sign it, please contact the Minnetonka Public Schools’ Data Practices Compliance Officer.

Consent Form to Release Data