This policy is required by Minnesota Statutes, sections 13.025 and 13.03 and applies ONLY to data requests for data about yourself, your minor child, or someone for whom you are a legal guardian.
When government has information recorded in any form (e.g., paper, hard drive, voicemail, video, email, etc.), that information is called “government data” under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 13). When we can identify you in government data, you are the “data subject” of that data. The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (MGDPA) gives you , as a data subject, certain rights. This policy explains your rights as a data subject, and tells you how to request data about you, your minor child, or someone for whom you are a legal guardian.
Public Data
The MGDPA presumes that all government data are public unless a state or federal law says that the data are not public. We must give public data to anyone who asks. It does not matter who is asking for the data or why the person wants the data.
Private Data
We cannot give private data to the general public. We can share your private data with you, with someone who has your permission, with our government entity staff whose job requires or permits them to see the data, and with others as permitted by law or court order.
Confidential Data
Confidential data have the most protection. Neither the public nor you can access confidential data even when the confidential data are about you. We can share confidential data about you with our government entity staff who have a work assignment to see the data, and to others as permitted by law or court order.
As a data subject, you have the following rights.
Access to Your Data
When We Collect Data From You
Protecting Your Data
When Your Data are Inaccurate or Incomplete
You have the right to challenge the accuracy and/or completeness of public and private data about you. You also have the right to appeal our decision. If you are a minor, your parent or guardian has the right to challenge data about you.
Option 1: To make a data request to the Minneapolis Public Schools, you should use the data request center and include “This data is about me” in the request description field. You must specifically state what data you wish to request about yourself. You may ask to look at (inspect) data at our offices, or ask for copies of data that we maintain about you, your minor child, or an individual for whom you have been appointed legal guardian. The District encourages the use of its data request center if you want to receive an acknowledgment receipt email and an assigned request ID.
Option 2: Alternatively, if you choose to not use the District’s data request center, your request must be submitted in writing by U.S. Mail to the District’s Data Practices Compliance Official. Your written request should:
We require proof of your identity before we can respond to your request for data. If you are requesting data about your minor child, you must show proof that you are the minor’s parent. If you are a legal guardian, you must show legal documentation of your guardianship. Please see the Standards for Verifying Identity section below. If you do not provide proof that you are the data subject or the data subject’s parent/legal guardian, we cannot respond to your request.
Minnesota Statutes, section 13.04, subdivision 3 allows us to charge for copies. All copy costs must be paid in full before the District will provide the requested copies.
Actual Cost of Making the Copies We will charge the actual cost of making copies for data about you. In determining the actual cost, we include the employee-time to create and send the copies, the cost of the materials onto which we are copying the data (paper, CD, DVD, etc.), and mailing costs such as postage (if any).
If your request is for copies of data that we cannot copy ourselves, such as photographs, we will charge you the actual cost we must pay an outside vendor for the copies.
The following constitute proof of identity:
An adult individual must provide a valid photo ID, such as:
A minor individual must provide a valid photo ID, such as:
MPS Responsible Authority
MPS Data Practices Compliance Official
Rochelle Cox Interim Superintendent mpssup@mpls.k12.mn.us
Karina Magistad publicdatarequests@mpls.k12.mn.us
Mailing Address for Written Data Requests: Minneapolis Public Schools Attn: Board Office / Data Practices Compliance Official 1250 West Broadway Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55411
(Last Reviewed 08/09/2023)