Public Data Requests

According to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, "government data" means all data collected, created, received, maintained or disseminated by any government entity regardless of its physical form, storage media or conditions of use.

It also defines categories of data:

• Data not on individuals. "Data not on individuals" are all government data that are not data on individuals.
• Data on individuals. "Data on individuals" means all government data in which any individual is or can be identified as the subject of that data, unless the appearance of the name or other identifying data can be clearly demonstrated to be only incidental to the data and the data are not accessed by the name or other identifying data of any individual.
• Not public data. "Not public data" are any government data classified by statute, federal law, or temporary classification as confidential, private, nonpublic, or protected nonpublic.

Any requester (i.e., a data subject or member of the public) may request data from Minneapolis Public Schools by using the District’s data request form. The District encourages the use of its form if you want to receive an acknowledgment receipt email and an assigned request ID.

Requesters that do not wish to use the District’s data request form, may submit a request in writing and must follow the process described in the District’s data access policies. 

• Data subjects should refer to the District’s data subject rights and access policy
• Members of the public should refer to the District’s public data access policy

The District responds to a request for data from a data subject request (i.e., data about yourself, your minor child, or for someone whom you are a legal guardian) within 10 business days (Minn. Stat. § 13.04, subd. 3). For additional information, you may refer to the District’s data subject rights and access policy.

The District responds to a request from a member of the public in an appropriate and prompt manner and within a reasonable time (Minn. Stat. § 13.03 and Minn. R. 1205.0300). In general, request response times do vary based on the complexity, size, and/or nature of a respective request. For additional information, you may refer to the District’s public data access policy.

The Minnesota Government 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 in that form or arrangement. For example, if the data you request are on paper only, 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 of your request, 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.

If you would like copies of the data, you will be charged for the copies. If we can provide the data to you electronically, there may be a cost. Please note that MPS is required to provide the data as we maintain it. We will not use staff time to modify or analyze data for the sole purpose of public data requests.

MPS cannot require anyone to identify themselves or explain the reason for their data request. If someone decides not to provide MPS with contact information, we will be unable to contact you with specific questions about your request.

According to MPS Board Policy 5690, to the following information is considered public:

• Name, height, and weight of individual members of athletic teams
• Name of recipient and name of award or scholarship received
• Names of participants in officially recognized school activities

Data Practices Contacts 

Responsible Authority:

Ryan Strack
ryan.strack@mpls.k12.mn.us

Data Practices Compliance Official:

Karina Magistad
publicdatarequests@mpls.k12.mn.us