Data Practices Policy

Minnesota Statutes, sections 13.025 and 13.03 require this policy.

Your Right to See Public Data

The Government Data Practices Act, Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13, presumes that all government data are public unless a state or federal law says the data are not public. Government data means all recorded information a government entity has, including paper, email, flash drives, CDs, DVDs, and photographs.

The law also requires the Office of Ombudsperson for Families (OBFF) to keep all government data in a way that makes it easy for you to access public data. You have the right to look at (inspect), free of charge, all public data that we keep. You also have the right to get copies of public data; 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.

How to Request Public Data

You can ask to look at (inspect) data at our offices or ask for copies of public data that we keep.

You must submit data requests in writing. You may make your request by emailing us at the address below, or by using the Data Request Form for Public Data.

Email: obff.info@state.mn.us

You are not required to identify yourself or explain the reason for your data request. However, you may need to provide some personal information for practical reasons (for example, if you want us to mail copies to you, you need to provide an address or P.O. Box). If we do not understand your request and have no way to contact you, we cannot respond.

For any information requests about payments to vendors, please visit TransparencyMN. This website provides publicly accessible data regarding the payments that state agencies and offices have made to various vendors, including vendor name, expense type, and amount paid.

How We Will Respond to Your Data Request

After we receive your request, we will review it.

• We may ask you to clarify what data you are requesting.
• If we do not have the data, we will notify you in writing within 14 business days.
• If we have the data but are not allowed to give it to you, we will tell you as soon as reasonably possible and identify the law that prevents us from providing the data.
• If we have the data and the data are public, we will respond to your request appropriately and promptly, within a reasonable amount of time, by either arranging a date, time, and place for you to inspect the data at our offices or providing notice about our requirement to prepay for copies.

You may choose to pick up your copies, or we will mail or email them to you. We will provide electronic copies upon request if we keep the data in that format and can reasonably make a copy. Response time may be affected by the size or complexity of your request, and by the number of requests you make in a given period of time.

If you do not decide within 10 business days of our response to inspect the data or pay for copies, we will conclude that you no longer want the data and will close your request.

If you do not understand some of the data (technical terminology, abbreviations, or acronyms), please tell the person who provided the data to you. We will explain it if you ask.

The Data Practices Act does not require us to create or collect new data in response to a data request, or to provide data in a specific form or arrangement if we do not keep the data that way. For example, if the data you request exists only on paper, 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, including cost and response time.

We are also not required to respond to questions that are not about your data requests, or requests for government data.

Requests for Summary Data

Summary data are statistical records or reports created by removing identifying information about individuals from private or confidential data. We will prepare summary data if you submit your request in writing; we may ask you to pay, or pay in advance, the cost of creating the data. You may use the Data Request Form for Public Data to request summary data. We will respond to your request within 10 business days with the data, or with details of when the data will be ready and how much we will charge you.

Data Practices Contacts

Data Practices Official: Beth Chaplin, Deputy Ombudsperson — Beth.Chaplin@state.mn.us

Data Practices Compliance Official: Katie Heilman, Office Manager — Katie.Heilman@state.mn.us

OBFF General Information Line: obff.info@state.mn.us

Copy Costs: When You Request Public Data

Minnesota Statutes, section 13.03, subdivision 3(c) allows us to charge for copies. You must pay for copies before we provide them. We do not charge for copies if the cost is less than $20.00. Multiple requests made within the same 60-business-day period will be treated as a single request when calculating total copy costs. If possible, and upon request, we will provide you with an estimate of the total cost of supplying copies.

For 100 or fewer paper copies — 25 cents per page: 100 or fewer pages of black-and-white, letter- or legal-size paper copies cost 25¢ for a one-sided copy, or 50¢ for a two-sided copy.

Most other types of copies — actual cost: The charge for most other types of copies, when a charge is not set by statute or rule, is the actual cost of searching for and retrieving the data, and of making the copies or electronically sending the data.

In determining the actual cost of making copies, we include:

• Employee time (billed at $30 per hour, or at a higher employee's rate if their involvement is necessary)
• The cost of materials the data is copied onto (paper, CD, DVD, etc.)
• Mailing costs, if any

If your request is for copies of data we cannot copy ourselves, such as photographs, we will charge you the actual cost we must pay an outside vendor for the copies.