Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request
The South Carolina Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is the law that gives citizens the ability to obtain non-exempt public records or documents from a government agency. FOIA provides a citizen a qualified right to inspect or copy any public record of a public body except as exempted in FOIA statute.
FOIA allows a public body ten (10) business days, excluding weekends and legal public holidays, to notify the person making the FOIA request its determination on whether the request is appropriate and can be fulfilled. Once this determination is made, then the District will begin assembling the requested records or documents. FOIA does not require the District to provide the requested documents in the 10 day time frame. Following this determination to the requester, a public body has 30 calendar days to produce responsive documents to the FOIA request.
Sumter School District is committed to operating in a transparent manner which includes making public records available for inspection under the provisions of FOIA.
Members of the public may review or obtain school district records that are determined to be public under the provisions of FOIA. In order to maintain the effective functioning of a school district or for security reasons, certain conditions for reviewing or obtaining copies of records may apply.
FOIA does not require the public body to create new work product, create, or manufacture documents, make statements, or provide answers to questions submitted in a FOIA request. To learn more about the Freedom of Information Act, visit the site at http://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t30c004.php.
FOIA also allows a public body to establish and collect reasonable fees not to exceed the actual cost of searching for or making copies of records or the search, retrieval, and when appropriate, redaction of records produced in response to a request for public records under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act. Copies will be charged at a cost not to exceed the prevailing commercial rate for the producing of copies.
In certain cases, particularly FOIA requests in which a large number of records or confidential information is requested, a deposit not exceeding 25% of the total estimated fee will be required prior to commencing the retrieval and production of records.
The following fee schedule will apply:
Copying costs will be charged at a commercially reasonable rate of $0.10 per page for black and white and $0.12 for color, and the fee for non-standard sized documents such as architectural plans or property plats will be individually determined at the time of copying based on actual copying costs.
For more information, please contact Shelly Galloway at shelly.galloway@sumterschools.net.