With the revamping of open records laws in Pennsylvania earlier this year, the Williamsport Sun-Gazette agreed to become part of an effort with The Associated Press and other newspapers statewide to see just how accessible government records are in municipalities and school districts.
Read More…

Many issues that have arisen during the first year under Pennsylvania's revised Right-to-Know Law, which may soon be amended. Should taxpayers have to foot a part of the cost of massive requests? How does the law work when the records are also integral to an ongoing lawsuit? Should the government be able to cancel a request it deems to be a practical impossibility?
Read More…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A new test of how government agencies respond to records requests shows that a year after Pennsylvania's revamped Right-to-Know Law took effect, it may be transforming attitudes among public officials about the public documents and information under their control. Over two days this fall, reporters and others from 33 Pennsylvania newspapers, a TV station, and a community college journalism class filed 274 requests for public records from police agencies, local government offices and school districts in an audit coordinated by The Associated Press.
Read More…

NORRISTOWN — The Times Herald partnered with The Associated Press in its 2009 audit of the Pennsylvania Right-To-Know Law by sending several staffers on undercover assignments to various municipalities, school districts and police departments throughout the coverage area in early October. Read More…

How the audit of compliance with Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law was conducted. Read More…

List of news organizations that participated in the design and execution of the 2009 audit survey of compliance with Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law. Read More…

During two days in early October, five surveyors dispatched by the Centre Daily Times drove more than 230 miles and traveled to 11 public agencies in Centre County to test the state's almost year-old Right-to-Know Law. Read More…

Public Opinion participated in the 2009 Audit of Public Access to Government Records, requesting five items from five different departments with two failures among them: Shippensburg Police Department and Franklin County 911. Read More…

Four years ago, when Christina Perrone began showing up at Radnor Township meetings asking about municipal spending, authorities in the Delaware County suburb treated her like an unwelcome pest.
Read More…

Major provisions of the Right-to-Know Law that took full effect in January 2009. Read More…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A wealth of information about the actions and decisions of Pennsylvania public officials has been pried loose in the year since a broad expansion of the state's Right-to-Know Law took effect. There are signs, including a recent spot check of government agencies, that the state is shedding its long-standing reputation as a public-access backwater. Read More…

So what happens when a government hires a contractor to perform a task – engineering work, making a grant request, zoning decisions – and the contractor keeps the paperwork? How can people see documents they are entitled to see? When dealing with the smallest municipalities, governments with only a few part-time employees, it can get complicated. Read More…

In October, the York Daily Record/Sunday News made 18 right-to-know requests as part of a statewide audit of the new open records law that was led by The Associated Press. Here are the results of those requests. The records requested were public under the law. Read More…

The Newberry Township Police Department fulfilled a request for a 24-hour incident log only after requiring the requester to identify his employer. Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know law does not require requesters to identify their employer before being given access to a record, according to the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's media law counsel. A reporter from the York Daily Record/Sunday News asked for a log of calls the department responded to Oct. 3 as part of the Associated Press' statewide audit of public access to government records under Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know law. Read More…

Students at the Monroe Campus of Northampton Community College's (NCC) Journalism and Society class played an integral part in the Associated Press (AP) Pennsylvania-wide audit, "Right to Know." They were the only students to take part in the project, which otherwise included media professionals. Read More…

Q: What is the Pennsylvania Office of Open  Records? Read More…