Last week, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for simple demographic information pertaining to students at Fairfax County’s six failing high schools . It is likely that the information exists in the district’s Student Information System database. If the data were available in the Virginia Department of Education’s School Quality Profiles , which it is not, it would take about 10 minutes to collect.
The district’s FOIA office has a long history of overcharging Fairfax residents for access to information. This incident appears to be no exception. On Aug. 9, a FOIA officer sent me an email that said, “The estimated costs to respond to your request under VFOIA are $105.00 (3 hours at the rate of $35/hour).”
Later that day, I questioned the cost. I wrote: “I’m confused about the estimated labor time of three hours. If this data were publicly available on the Virginia website , it would take me less than 10 minutes to pull. Why is this request so labor intensive on your end?”
Up until the time of publication of this article, the FOIA office has not answered my question regarding the inflated labor estimate.
As one of my friends pointed out, exaggerated labor estimates at the high rate of $35 per hour might not just be a deterrent from requesting information, but also how the district tries to cover its extensive legal fees when parents discover its corruption.
On Feb. 9, 2022, for example, Debra Tisler, a former school board candidate and mother, submitted a FOIA request for documents regarding procurement card purchases, which would have been likely to prove fraud, waste, and abuse by county officials.
In response, the FOIA officer made her request cost-prohibitive. Tisler received an email that said: “The estimated labor time to fulfill this request is substantial. FCPS estimates that it will be required 800 hours of staff time to fulfill these items. The estimated costs to respond to items 1 and 2 is $28,000.00 (800 hours at the rate of $35/hour)."
There are state and federal laws in place to prevent the overcharging of residents for access to information that legally belongs to the public. For example, Section 2.2-3704 (F) of Virginia FOIA law states that fees charged for access to public records shall not exceed the actual cost of accessing and copying such records.
I have reached out to the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council to request a deep, multiyear audit of Fairfax County Public Schools's FOIA office to determine whether or not there is systemic abuse of the district’s residents. Many requesters believe that, contrary to Virginia’s FOIA law, they are charging excessive FOIA fees in order to prevent access to public information, particularly to those of us who hold views contrary to the district’s “equity at all costs” strategic plan.
I also contacted Esther Ko , the district’s internal auditor general. Ko, whose salary was $225,656 in 2023, rarely, if ever, finds evidence of waste and abuse in her “investigations.” Although I requested a deep audit of FOIA fees, she wanted specific examples. I have many, but I thought that she should do her job and find all of them in an honest internal audit.
Within five hours, Ko responded with a “nothing to see here” email. She wrote: “We have reviewed your claim and without specifics could not find credible evidence of fraud, waste, and abuse as outlined in School Board Policy 1107 and FCPS Regulation 1410.”
Her findings are not surprising. Ko also did not find any wrongdoing when the FOIA office charged me $280 to access my son’s curriculum materials, a right guaranteed under the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.
In April 2023, Karen Keys-Gamarra, a former at-large school board member, praised Ko. “I personally wanted to thank you for being a partner ... and for making us look good,” she said. That sums up the situation well. Fairfax County’s internal auditor general is clearly prioritizing making the district “look good” over finding even the most obvious incidents of fraud, waste, and abuse.
Fairfax County Public Schools's FOIA office and its $3.8 billion budget need an external audit for the sake of transparency. Whether we’ll get one is another question entirely.
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Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network.
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