A Washington state legislator has called for a closer examination of the burdens that public records requests place on school districts, spotlighting growing administrative costs and staff time devoted to compliance under the state’s Public Records Act.

The initiative, advanced by Republican Representative Skyler Rude of Walla Walla, seeks a work group to study how requests deemed frivolous, retaliatory or harassing affect K-12 districts’ ability to focus resources on student instruction. 

Under an amended version of House Bill 2661, which passed the House State Government & Tribal Relations Committee on February 4, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee will convene a work group to evaluate the issue specifically for school districts, rather than for public agencies generally.

Rude said that repeated identical requests placed “significant strain” on limited staff and budgets, diverting time and money away from core educational missions.

School officials backed his concerns, citing cases where districts have had to hire additional staff to manage requests and incur tens of thousands of dollars in operating costs.

Supporters of transparency argue that public access to government records is a fundamental part of open government, but they also acknowledge that an increasing volume of requests — particularly those involving student-related materials that trigger legal and privacy considerations — can be resource intensive.

Representatives from districts like West Valley in Spokane Valley noted that time spent responding to requests has risen markedly over recent years.

The proposed work group is expected to include representatives from media, government watchdogs, public record officers and school risk management pools, providing a broad spectrum of perspectives on balancing transparency with operational capacity.