Equity Forward’s Sunshine Guide: A Toolkit for State-Level Public Records Research
[email protected] Table of Contents Preface 5 Who We Are 5 How This Guide Came to Be 6 Public Records Research: Why Do It? 7 Examples of Success from Equity Forward’s State-Level Public Records Research 8 How to Write a Public Records Request Letter 10 Sample Public Records Request Letter 11 Tracking Public Records 13 Why, How, and When to Follow Up 13 Obstacles and How to Deal with Them 14 Reviewing Records Received 15 How to Use Findings from Public Records Research 15 Toolkit: Templates for Download 16 Request Letter Template 16 Tracking Spreadsheet Template 16 Report Template for Reviewing Records 16 Additional State FOIA Resources 16 State-Specific Submission Guidelines 17 Alabama 19 Alaska 20 Arizona 21 Arkansas 22 California 23 Colorado 24 Connecticut 25 District of Columbia 26 Delaware 27 EQUITY FORWARD SUNSHINE GUIDE 2 Florida 28 Georgia 29 Hawaii 30 Idaho 31 Illinois 32 Indiana 33 Iowa 34 Kansas 35 Kentucky 36 Louisiana 37 Maine 38 Maryland 39 Massachusetts 40 Michigan 41 Minnesota 42 Mississippi 43 Missouri 44 Montana 45 Nebraska 46 Nevada 47 New Hampshire 48 New Jersey 49 New Mexico 50 New York 51 North Carolina 52 North Dakota 53 Ohio 54 Oklahoma 55 Oregon 56 Pennsylvania 57 Rhode Island 58 EQUITY FORWARD SUNSHINE GUIDE 3 South Carolina 59 South Dakota 60 Tennessee 61 Texas 62 Utah 63 Vermont 64 Virginia 65 Washington 66 West Virginia 67 Wisconsin 68 Wyoming 69 Acknowledgements 70 EQUITY FORWARD SUNSHINE GUIDE 4 Preface Who We Are Equity Forward, founded in 2017, is a watchdog project that seeks to ensure transparency and accountability among anti-reproductive health groups and individuals.