Office of Government Information Services (OGIS)

U.S. Department of Education

What OGIS Found

1. The U.S. Department of Education's (Education’s) FOIA regulation has not been updated since 2010 and is out of compliance with the statute. (Recommendation 1)

2. Education’s template letters and standard language are not in compliance with the statute and could be clearer. (Recommendations 2 & 3)

3. Technology that Education uses to administer FOIA is not seamless or being used to its fullest extent. (Recommendation 4)

4. Management controls and a decentralized FOIA program challenge Education’s effectiveness and efficiency. (Recommendations 5, 6 & 7)

Opportunities exist for the Department’s new Chief FOIA Officer to fulfill the statutory duties of ensuring compliance with FOIA and recommending improvements to FOIA implementation.

What OGIS Recommends

1. Education must update its FOIA regulation to reflect amendments to FOIA as well as the Department’s processes for implementing the substantive and procedural changes.

2. Education must comply with FOIA by providing estimated dates of completion to requesters who seek such information.

3. Education must update its template letters and standard language to comply with the statute.

4. Education should establish a partnership between the FOIA Service Center and the Department’s Customer Service and Technology Team to analyze the costs and benefits of moving to a Department-wide system and leverage technology to improve and streamline the Department’s FOIA process.

5.  Education should track and establish response time performance standards for program office records searches.

6. Education should use data to set goals for the numbers of cases closed and pages reviewed by each FOIA processor.

7. Education should incorporate FOIA performance standards into performance plans for all employees with FOIA responsibilities.

What OGIS Reviewed

OGIS reviewed written materials including the Department’s FOIA regulation, standard operating procedures, management reports, FOIA Annual Reports, and organizational charts, among other materials. OGIS conducted 12 interviews of Education FOIA professionals and administered an online survey to 42 Department FOIA professionals. OGIS also reviewed a statistically significant random sample of 340 initial request files processed in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, the most recent available at the time of our review in August 2018.


Compliance Assessment Report

Title: Review of U.S. Department of Education Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Program

Date: September 25, 2019

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENT REPORT


120-day Follow-Up Material

Education Response to OGIS RecommendationsApril 6, 2020

120 Day Follow-Up Packagesent February 6, 2020

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