(The Center Square) – The ranking Republican on the Washington state Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee calls it “crazy and stupid” that the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction can dispose of Special Education Community Complaint records after a six-year retention period.
OSPI changed its record retention policy in 2020 and again in 2024 to allow for the destruction of Special Education Community Complaint decisions and other types of records after six years, The Seattle Times initially reported.
Sen. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, issued a statement after the story broke.
“It is unacceptable that OSPI does not place more importance on retaining records related to complaints, especially those dealing with special-education students. Parents and advocates for these students should be able to access such records upon request,” he said. “A policy that allows these records to be deleted after only six years hampers efforts by parents and advocates to improve the special-education system for students. If OSPI and Washington State Archives fail to fix this soon, the Legislature should step in to ensure the record-retention policy meets the needs of parents and special-education advocates.”
According to the Washington State Governor’s Office of the Education Ombuds, a Special Education Community Complaint, formerly called a Citizen Complaint, is a process where any individual or organization can file a complaint with the OSPI if they believe a school district or public agency has violated the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act related to special education.
Harris spoke with The Center Square about his concerns on Thursday.
“I had no clue that OSPI, under really no direction from the state Legislature, has decided that after six years, they will destroy these records,” Harris said. “You would think they would keep the records as long as the kids are in the system. Why would you ever throw that out?”
Harris said a policy that allows the records to be destroyed after only six years hampers parents’ and advocates’ efforts to improve the special education system for students.
The Center Square contacted OSPI for comment.
“OSPI retains records for all special education community complaints for 6 years in alignment with the records retention guidance from the Washington Secretary of State. The retention of Community Complaints has not changed – it was, and continues to be, 6 years,” Katie Hannig, OSPI interim communication manager, said in an email.
She continued: “The Washington State Archives strongly recommends the disposal of public records at the end of their minimum retention period to ensure the efficient and effective management of state resources. OSPI updated its retention of community complaints, most recently in October 2024, to be consistent with this new guidance and only archive litigation files of particular statewide interest. OSPI updated its practice when archiving complaints to match the Secretary of State’s guidance of not automatically archiving all complaints.”
OSPI’s retention schedule can be found here.
The Center Square also contacted the Washington Secretary of State’s Office for clarification on its role in OSPI’s retention of records.
“SOS does not directly advise agencies on records retention. Our office does provide training to all state and local agencies on records retention matters and schedules – that is in our RCW and is one of our prime mandates for Archives. But it is the agency itself that makes the decision on which schedules to apply and when to destroy the records,” Larry Frum, SOS communications consultant, emailed The Center Square.
Frum went on to say, “As part of that training, their position, as for any agency, is to archive records of profound influence. Any changes or updates to the OSPI records retention schedule were made by OSPI and approved by the state records committee.”
Stacy Dym, executive director of The Arc of Washington, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, said her organization will work toward legislation requiring OSPI to retain the records and make all complaint decisions publicly available.
“The key here is that this complaint process is ‘free’ to the parent/complainant,” Dym emailed The Center Square. “These decisions should be made public so that patterns of noncompliance and discrimination can be observed. In addition, OSPI often uses the information it finds in this complaint process to offer more guidance to districts and supports, so they can comply. Parents need to know this information, too.”
She suggested that OSPI has likely determined that nothing ‘compels’ them to publish decisions under federal law.
“However, as a state, we SHOULD be transparent; it is an equity issue for parents who cannot afford legal services, and these decisions are a matter of public record,” Dym wrote. “WA should be transparent when its districts deny access to education inappropriately, are noncompliant with rules they promise to follow in order to accept funding, or they cause discriminatory behavior toward a student or students with disabilities in general.”
Harris said he will propose legislation to “correct” OSPI’s decision not to retain complaint report records beyond six years.
“I think, certainly, the best interest of the child is to have that record follow them wherever they go,” he noted. “I shouldn’t have to legislate everything. Let’s just do the right thing.”
