TOM TORLAKSON STATE OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT or EDUCATION February16,2016 Megan Wood Via E?Mai'l Reporter, inewsourceorg meganwood?iinewsourceora Re: Your Public Records Request Dated February 5, 2016 Dear Ms. Wood: On February 5, 2016 you submitted a Public Records Act request to the California Department of Education seeking the following records: a A list of all the people chosen by the California Department of Education to review McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant proposals for fiscal year 2015-16. including, but not limited to: the name of each grant reader, their professional title, and their school district affiliation. - A list of districts that submitted a McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant proposal for fiscal year 2015-15 and the specific grant reader(s) who reviewed each proposal. The CDE has now finished its review of the Public Record Act (PRA) request. As for your request for ?a list of districts that submitted a McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant proposal for fiscal year 2015-16," the CDE responds that it has a record which we believe is responsive to your request. Attached to the e-mail from our Communications Division is a spreadsheet listing all applicants requesting Homeless Assistance Grant Funding for 2015?2018 and whether or not the application was funded or not. Because this record was already available electronically without any compilation, extraction or programming required, there is no charge. As for your request for ?a list of all the people chosen by the California Department of Education to review McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant proposals for fiscal year 2015-2016, including, but not limited to: the name of each grant reader, their professional title, and their school district af?liation? and your request for records of ?the specific grant reader{s) who reviewed each proposal," the CDE has responsive records. However, the CDE deems those records to be exempt from production as public records pursuant to Government Code sections 6254(a) and 6255, which allow state agencies to withhold records from the public whenever the harm to the public interest that might be caused from disclosure of the records clearly outweighs the benefit to the public interest that might be created by disclosure of the same records. In this instance, the CDE recruited both internal (CDE) as well as external persons (educators outside of the CDE) with experience in the field of homeless education to review and score the proposals. As part of the process, the CDE asked all external persons to sign a form stating that they had no conflicts of interest which would otherwise l430 STREET, SACRAMENTO, CA 95314-5901- 916-31?9?0800 I Megan Woods Page Two prohibit them from participating in the review and scoring process. That same form informed them that there would be ?confidentiality? concerning their participation in the proposal review process. It is often very difficult for governmental agencies, including the CDE, to get people to agree to participate in processes such as reviewing and scoring grant applications, as many people are hesitant to participate in such a process for a variety of reasons; one of which is fear that the public will know that they participated in the process, a process which involves winners and losers of often hundreds of thousands of dollars. and that they will be the target for unwanted and unsolicited negative comments or actions by those who did not prevail in the process. People have a very legitimate concern - particularly in this day and age when it is very easy to find and contact people on-line. The CDE believes it owes a duty to the integrity and neutrality of the funding process to keep the names of reviewers confidential, particularly because the CDE may choose to use the same readers again in future grant proposals and needs to ensure that readers are not ?tainted? in the process. in summary, there is a genuine possibility that releasing the names of the readers publically will create discomfort and fear among current and future grant proposal readers and "chill" the ability of the CDE to obtain untainted volunteer readers in the future. This would clearly harm the public's interest in seeing that grant proposals are reviewed and scored fairly. effectively and efficiently. Thus, we are exempting these records from public production. If you have any specific questions concerning this response, you may contact me at estein@cde.ca.qov. in the meantime, please be advised that this request is itself a public record and may be released should CDE receive a request for disclosure. Sincerely, c: 1" Elizabeth Stein, Deputy General Counsel Legal Division ES: es