2021

Chief FOIA Officer R ficer Report

The Department of Education’s mission is to

promote student achievement and preparation for 

global competitiveness by fostering educational 

excellence and ensuring equal access.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA) 

SERVICECENTER
Table of Contents

Message from the Chief FOIA Officer ............................................................................. 2

Section 1: Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness .................................... 3

A. FOIA Leadership .................................................................................................... 3

B. FOIA Training ......................................................................................................... 3

C. Outreach ............................................................................................................ 4

D. Other Initiatives .................................................................................................. 5

Section II: Steps Taken to Ensure that Your Agency Has an Effective System in Place 

for Responding to Requests............................................................................................ 5

Section III: Steps Taken to Increase Proactive Disclosures ........................................... 7

Section IV: Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology.................................................. 9

Section V: Steps Taken to Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests and 

Reducing Backlogs........................................................................................................ 11

A. Simple Track ....................................................................................................... 11

B. Backlogs.............................................................................................................. 12

BACKLOGGED REQUESTS.................................................................................. 12

BACKLOGGED APPEALS ..................................................................................... 13

C. Backlog Reduction Plans ................................................................................. 14

D. Status of Oldest Requests, Appeals, and Consultations .................................. 14

OLDEST REQUESTS............................................................................................. 15

TEN OLDEST APPEALS........................................................................................ 15

TEN OLDEST CONSULTATIONS.......................................................................... 15

E. Additional Information on Ten Oldest Requests, Appeals, and Consultations & 

Plans.......................................................................................................................... 16

F. Success Stories................................................................................................... 16
Message from the Chief FOIA Officer 

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is a Cabinet-level department of the United 

States government that began operating in 1980. ED’s mission is to promote student 

achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational 

excellence and ensuring equal access. The Department’s Freedom of Information Act 

(FOIA) program is amongst many functions that contribute to ED meeting and achieving 

its mission. 

ED’s FOIA program makes every effort to respond to requests within the statutory timelimits for responding under FOIA. As the Chief FOIA Officer, I am pleased to report that 

the FOIA program is continuing to improve its administration of FOIA. Throughout this 

March 2020 to March 2021 reporting period, ED continued efforts to increase 

responsiveness to requesters, promote transparency, and eliminate or reduce backlogs 

(of initial FOIA requests as well as FOIA appeals), and address resource needs. 

ED’s targeted focus on reducing backlogs in FY 2020 resulted in the closure of 2,537 

FOIA requests and 82 FOIA appeals compared to 2,368 FOIA requests and 62 FOIA 

appeals in the previous fiscal year. Additionally, ED closed 9 out of the 10 oldest FOIA 

requests and FOIA appeals. These efforts combined with the procurement of a 

Department wide FOIA support contract played a key role in the overall backlog 

reduction. Details of these reductions are highlighted in Section V. of this report.

ED also brought on two FTE’s whose primary responsibility is to establish an efficient 

FOIA e-Discovery program. The program will continuously conduct comprehensive 

reviews of ED’s technological capabilities to increase efficiency within the FOIA 

program. 

ED’s FOIA program will continue to build on these accomplishments and work with its 

program offices to ensure continued compliance with the FOIA and to demonstrate a 

sincere commitment to transparency and openness in government.

Inquiries about this report may be directed to ED’s FOIA Service Center via phone at 

(202) 401-8365 or via email at EDFOIAManager@ed.gov.

Tracey St. Pierre

Director, Office of the Executive Secretariat

and Chief FOIA Officer
Section 1: Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness

A. FOIA Leadership

1. The FOIA requires each agency to designate a Chief FOIA Officer who is a 

senior official at the Assistant Secretary or equivalent level. See 5 U.S.C. § 

552(j)(1) (2018). Is your agency’s Chief FOIA Officer at this level? 

Yes.

2. Please provide the name and title of your agency’s Chief FOIA Officer.

Tracey St. Pierre, Director, Office of the Executive Secretariat and Chief FOIA 

Officer 

B. FOIA Training

1. The FOIA directs agency Chief FOIA Officers to ensure that FOIA training is 

offered to agency personnel. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(j)(2)(F). Please describe 

the efforts your agency has undertaken to ensure proper FOIA training is made 

available and used by agency personnel.

The U.S. Department of Education’s or ED’s Chief FOIA Officer ensures 

adequate training by planning and hosting annual Department-wide training 

events with internal and external FOIA experts, offering ad-hoc training at regular 

meetings with principal office staff, and by making ED staff aware of available 

training opportunities through various notification, such as ED’s FOIA newsletter 

and blast e-mails to staff. Additionally, the training needs of FOIA professionals 

are communicated to the FOIA Service Center (FSC) during meetings between 

the FSC and program offices that occur throughout the Fiscal Year, and FSC 

uses this input to assess and address those needs. 

2. Did your FOIA professionals or the personnel at your agency who have FOIA 

responsibilities attend substantive FOIA training during the reporting period such 

as that provided by the Department of Justice?

Yes.

3. If yes, please provide a brief description of the type of training attended or 

conducted and the topics covered.

FOIA professionals from multiple program offices took advantage of the many 

training opportunities that were made available, including FOIA training provided 

by the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy (OIP), and the 

American Society of Access Professionals (ASAP):

• 2020 ASAP Virtual National Training Conference
• “Food for Thought” Training Seminar – FOIA Advisory Committee 

Recommendations. 

• Virtual Introduction to the Freedom of Information Act

• Virtual Annual FOIA Report Training

• Artificial Intelligence 101

• Federal Electronic Discovery Working Group Conference

Other types of training or conference opportunities made that were attended by 

ED FOIA professionals, include:

• AINS 15th Annual FOIAXpress User Conference and Technology Summit

• Chief FOIA Officers Council Meeting – October 14, 2020 (Virtual)

ED also offered the following internal training during the reporting period:

• ED conducted its annual FOIA training and had four DOJ attorney’s 

present on the following topics: (1) Processing from Start to Finish, and (2) 

Fees and Fee Waivers.

• Attorney’s from ED’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC) provided 

tailored FOIA training to staff in the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The twoday training included: (1) FOIA Overview, (2) What is a “record”? 

Conducting searches for records, (3) FOIA Appeals Overview, (4) PII in

Exemptions 6 and 7(c), and (5) Exemptions 4, 5, and 7(a). 

4. Please provide an estimate of the percentage of your FOIA professionals and 

staff with FOIA responsibilities who attended substantive FOIA training during 

this reporting period.

ED continues to have a high rate of at least 90% of ED’s FOIA professionals and 

staff with FOIA responsibilities attend substantive training during this reporting 

period. We believe the high rate of FOIA professionals that attended training is 

due to the continual outreach effort made by the FSC where we notify FOIA 

professionals of training opportunities that are available.

5. OIP has directed agencies to “take steps to ensure that all of their FOIA 

professionals attend substantive FOIA training at least once throughout the year.” 

If your response to the previous question is that less than 80% of your FOIA 

professionals attended training, please explain your agency’s plan to ensure that 

all FOIA professionals receive or attend substantive FOIA training during the next 

reporting year.

N/A.

C. Outreach

Did your FOIA professionals engage in any outreach or dialogue with the requester 

community or open government groups regarding your administration of the FOIA? 
Please describe any such outreach or dialogue, and, if applicable, any specific 

examples of how this dialogue has led to improvements in your agency’s FOIA 

administration.

ED FOIA staff attended the 2020 ASAP Virtual National Training Conference, and 

while this conference and others usually facilitate engagement with the requester 

community, due to the virtual nature and limited opportunities available this year 

because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ED’s FOIA professionals did not engage in 

significant outreach with the requester community or open government groups. 

D. Other Initiatives

Describe any efforts your agency has undertaken to inform non-FOIA professionals 

of their obligations under the FOIA. In particular, please describe how often and in 

what formats your agency provides FOIA training or briefings to non-FOIA staff.

All new ED personnel are informed of their FOIA obligations as part of ED’s 

onboarding process, and FSC makes internal training opportunities available to 

FOIA and non-FOIA professionals alike. During this reporting period, multiple 

program offices requested staff from the FSC attend their all-staff meetings to 

discuss FOIA.

10. Optional -- If there are any other initiatives undertaken by your agency to ensure that 

the presumption of openness is being applied, please describe them here.

N/A.

Section II: Steps Taken to Ensure that Your Agency Has an Effective 

System in Place for Responding to Requests

1. For Fiscal Year 2020, what was the average number of days your agency reported 

for adjudicating requests for expedited processing? Please see Section VIII.A. of 

your agency's Fiscal Year 2020 Annual FOIA Report.

The average number of days was 24.

2. If your agency's average number of days to adjudicate requests for expedited 

processing was above ten calendar days, according to Section VIII.A. of your 

agency's Fiscal Year 2020 Annual FOIA Report, please describe the steps your 

agency will take to ensure that requests for expedited processing are adjudicated 

within ten calendar days or less.

The FOIA Service Center (FSC) Director will emphasize the importance of improving 

the process for adjudicating requests for expedited processing in fewer than 10 

calendar days. More managerial oversight will be implemented through the review 

of the FSC daily report which identifies all new incoming requests.
3. During the reporting period, did your agency conduct a self-assessment of its FOIA 

program? If so, please describe the methods used, such as reviewing Annual 

Report or raw data, using active workflows and track management, reviewing and

updating processing procedures, etc.

ED did not conduct a self-assessment this year as we have performed assessments 

of our FOIA program in the prior two years. 

Note: In September 2017, OIP released a FOIA Self-Assessment Toolkit as a 

resource for agencies conducting a self-assessment of their FOIA program. The 

Toolkit is available on OIP’s website for all agencies to use.

4. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): Having SOPs can improve the consistency 

and quality of an agency’s FOIA process. In addition, describing an agency’s 

standard practices for handling FOIA requests on agency FOIA websites can help 

requesters better understand how their request will be handled.

a) Does your agency have SOPs that outline general processes for handling FOIA 

requests and appeals?

Yes.

b) If not, does your agency have plans to create FOIA SOPs?

c) If yes, how often are they reviewed/updated to account for changes in law, best 

practices, and technology?

ED’s FOIA SOPs are reviewed continuously throughout the year and updated as 

needed.

d) In addition to having SOPs, does your agency post or otherwise describe your 

standard processes for handling requests on your website?

Yes, ED posts the agency’s FOIA regulations as well as a guide to assist in 

making Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the Department’s

records. 

5. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 requires additional notification to requesters 

about the services provided by the agency’s FOIA Public Liaison. Please provide an 

estimate of the number of times requesters sought assistance from your agency’s 

FOIA Public Liaison during FY 2020 (please provide a total number or an estimate of 

the number).

ED’s FOIA Public Liaison has been contacted for assistance approximately 100 

times during this fiscal year. On average, a member of the requester public contacts 

ED’s FOIA Public Liaison between 2 to 3 times per week. 
6. Does your agency frequently receive common categories of first-party requests? If 

so, please describe the types of requests and if your agency has explored 

establishing alternative means of access to these records outside of the FOIA 

process?

Yes, ED processes first-party requests for student loan and civil rights investigatory 

records. To date, we have not explored any other alternative means. 

7. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 required all agencies to update their FOIA 

regulations within 180 days. Has your agency updated its FOIA regulations in 

accordance with the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016? If not, what is your agency's 

plan to update your regulations?

Yes, ED’s FOIA regulations were updated in accordance with the FOIA Improvement 

Act of 2016.

8. Please explain how your agency worked to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 

pandemic on FOIA processing. Examples could include, but are not limited to: 

altering workflows, implementing new technology, providing notices and instructions 

or otherwise communicating directly with requesters.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, ED had a robust telework policy in place and had 

recently updated its entire IT environment, including a more robust virtual private 

network; therefore, the transition to the 100% remote environment was seamless. A 

notice was posted to the FOIA webpage informing FOIA requesters to submit FOIA 

requests through our online portal rather than by mail or facsimile. Regardless, 

limited staff regularly went onsite to scan and process any requests that were 

delivered to the office. 

Direct phone lines for FOIA professionals were redirected to government furnished 

mobile phones so that requesters could continue to communicate telephonically if 

needed. 

ED’s FOIA community continued to meet virtually throughout the year utilizing 

Microsoft Teams. 

9. Optional -- Please describe:

• Best practices used to ensure that your FOIA system operates efficiently and 

effectively

• Any challenges your agency faces in this area

Section III: Steps Taken to Increase Proactive Disclosures

1. Provide examples of any material that your agency has proactively disclosed during 

the past reporting year, including records that have been requested and released 
three or more times in accordance with 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(2)(D). Please include 

links to these materials as well.

Office of the Secretary

• COVID-19 Resources for Schools, Students, and Families

• The Role of Districts in Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations 

Plans

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE)

• Interactive COVID Relief Data Portal

• Per Pupil Expenditure Data

Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (OPEPD)

• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Guidance

• 2020 Census and FERPA

• Recorded Webinars

Office for Civil Rights (OCR)

• Case Processing Manual (CPM

• Pending Cases Currently Under Investigation at Elementary-Secondary and 

Post-Secondary Schools

• 2017-2018 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)

• Title IX Resources

• OCR Annual Report to the Secretary, the President, and the Congress

Office of Educational Technology (OET)

• Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide

Federal Student Aid (FSA)

• Coronavirus and Forbearance Info for Students, Borrowers, and Parents

• FSA Updates

• Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP)

Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE)

• COVID-19 FAQ for Grantees
• Information for Accrediting Agencies Regarding Temporary Flexibilities Provided 

to Coronavirus Impacted Institutions or Accrediting Agencies

2. Beyond posting new material, is your agency taking steps to make the posted 

information more useful to the public, especially to the community of individuals who 

regularly access your agency’s website?

Yes, ED continued to make posted information more useful to ED’s community. A 

few examples of this are:

• Detailed information on the several improvements made to the College 

Scorecard can be found here.

• Transformative upgrades were made to StudentAid.gov that includes new tools, 

which provide students with detailed information about the grants and loans they 

have received and guide them to a personalized recommendation for a loan 

repayment plan. Detailed information on the improvements made to 

StudentAid.gov can be found here. 

3. If yes, please provide examples of such improvements. In particular, please 

describe steps your agency is taking to post information in open, machine-readable, 

and machine-actionable formats, to the extent feasible. If not posting in open 

formats, please explain why and note any challenges.

4. Optional -- Please describe:

• Best practices used to improve proactive disclosures

ED’s FSC in partnering with the OGC FOIA Attorneys continues to communicate 

to program offices to identify categories of records that have been frequently 

requested or for which there is an anticipated high public interest. 

• Any challenges your agency faces in this area

ED continues to face challenges posting documents that do not meet the 

requirements for posting documents under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act 

of 1973.

Section IV: Steps Taken to Greater Utilize Technology

1. Please briefly describe the types of technology your agency uses to support your 

FOIA program. In addition, please highlight if your agency is leveraging or exploring 

any new technology that you have not previously reported. If so, please describe 

the type of technology.

To begin, ED utilizes a few FOIA solutions from AINS to support our FOIA program. 

FOIAXpress is our case management system which is hosted by AINS in their cloud 
environment. By having the software hosted by AINS, there is a greater ease of 

implementing configuration changes and updates which means less downtime for 

end-users. ED also has implemented the FOIAXpress Public Access Link (PAL) 

which is a public facing website that offers a centralized location for receiving online 

FOIA requests, delivering records, communicating with requesters, and collecting 

fees. ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has acquired the FOIAXpress Electronic 

Document Review (EDR tool. This add-on uses e-Discovery technology to quickly 

filter, de-dupe, rank and categorize large volumes of records. 

To address the need for administrative searches and e-Discovery needs, ED uses 

Veritas (Clearwell) and Microsoft 365. 

Lastly, Federal Student Aid (FSA) uses the FOIA Integrity Management System 

(FIMS) which is a in-house software that is connected to ED’s Department-wide 

FOIA tracking system. Its purpose is to automate and improve the internal 

processing of FSA FOIA requests.

2. OIP issued guidance in 2017 encouraging agencies to regularly review their FOIA 

websites to ensure that they contain essential resources, and are informative and 

user-friendly. Has your agency reviewed its FOIA website(s) during the reporting 

period to ensure it addresses the elements noted in the guidance?

Yes, ED routinely reviews its FOIA website.

3. Did your agency successfully post all four quarterly reports for Fiscal Year 2020?

Yes, all four quarterly reports were posted.

4. If your agency did not successfully post all quarterly reports, with information 

appearing on FOIA.gov, please explain why and provide your agency’s plan for 

ensuring that such reporting is successful in Fiscal Year 2021.

N/A.

5. The FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 requires all agencies to post the raw statistical 

data used to compile their Annual FOIA Reports. Please provide the link to this posting 

for your agency’s Fiscal Year 2019 Annual FOIA Report and, if available, for your 

agency’s Fiscal Year 2020 Annual FOIA Report. 

ED’s raw statistical data can be found here. 

6. Optional -- Please describe:

• Best practices used in greater utilizing technology

• Any challenges your agency faces in this area
Section V: Steps Taken to Improve Timeliness in Responding to Requests and 

Reducing Backlogs

For the figures required in this Section, please use the numbers contained in the 

specified sections of your agency’s FY 2019 and 2020 Annual FOIA Reports. 

A. Simple Track

Section VII.A of your agency’s Annual FOIA Report, entitled "FOIA Requests –

Response Time for All Processed Requests," includes figures that show your

agency's average response times for processed requests. For agencies utilizing a

multi-track system to process requests, there is a category for "simple" requests,

which are those requests that are placed in the agency’s fastest (non-expedited)

track, based on the low volume and/or simplicity of the records requested.

1. Does your agency utilize a separate track for simple requests?

Yes, ED utilized a separate track for simple requests.

2. If your agency uses a separate track for simple requests, according to Annual

FOIA Report section VII.A, was the agency overall average number of days to

process simple requests twenty working days or fewer in Fiscal Year 2020?Yes, 

our processing time for simple requests for Fiscal Year 2020 was 8.34 days.

3. Please provide the percentage of requests processed by your agency in Fiscal

Year 2020 that were placed in your simple track. Please use the following

calculation based on the data from your Annual FOIA Report: (processed simple

requests from Section VII.C.1) divided by (requests processed from Section V.A.)

x 100.

Fifty-Seven percent (57%) of the 2,537 requests processed in Fiscal Year 2020

were placed in the simple track.

4. If your agency does not track simple requests separately, was the average

number of days to process all non-expedited requests twenty working days or

fewer?

N/A.
B. Backlogs

Section XII.A of your agency’s Annual FOIA Report, entitled "Backlogs of FOIA 

Requests and Administrative Appeals" shows the numbers of any backlogged 

requests or appeals from the fiscal year. You should refer to these numbers from 

your Annual FOIA Reports for both Fiscal Year 2019 and Fiscal Year 2020 when 

completing this section of your Chief FOIA Officer Report.

BACKLOGGED REQUESTS

1. If your agency had a backlog of requests at the close of Fiscal Year 2020, 

according to Annual FOIA Report Section XII.A, did that backlog decrease as 

compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2019?

Yes, the backlog at the close of Fiscal Year 2020 decreased compared with the 

backlog at the close of Fiscal Year 2019. Our backlog decreased from 914 

requests in Fiscal Year 2019 to 859 requests in Fiscal Year 2020.

2. If not, according to Annual FOIA Report Section V.A, did your agency process 

more requests during Fiscal Year 2020 than it did during Fiscal Year 2019?

N/A.

3. If your agency’s request backlog increased during Fiscal Year 2020, please 

explain why and describe the causes that contributed to your agency not being 

able to reduce its backlog. When doing so, please also indicate if any of the 

following were contributing factors:

• An increase in the number of incoming requests.

• A loss of staff.

• An increase in the complexity of the requests received. If possible, please 

provide examples or briefly describe the types of complex requests 

contributing to your backlog increase.

• Any other reasons – please briefly describe or provide examples when 

possible.

N/A.

4. If you had a request backlog please report the percentage of requests that make 

up the backlog out of the total number of requests received by your agency in 

Fiscal Year 2020. Please use the following calculation based on data from your 
Annual FOIA Report: (backlogged requests from Section XII.A) divided by

(requests received from Section V.A) x 100. If your agency has no request 

backlog, please answer with “N/A.”

The percentage of requests that make up the backlog of the total number of 

requests received by ED in Fiscal Year 2020 is 36%. 

BACKLOGGED APPEALS

1. If your agency had a backlog of appeals at the close of Fiscal Year 2020,

according to Section XII.A of the Annual FOIA Report, did that backlog decrease

as compared with the backlog reported at the end of Fiscal Year 2019?

Yes, the backlog at the close of Fiscal Year 2020 decreased compared with the

backlog at the close of Fiscal Year 2019. Our backlog decreased from 86

appeals in Fiscal Year 2019 to 55 requests in Fiscal Year 2020

2. If not, according to section VI.A of the Annual FOIA Report, did your agency

process more appeals during Fiscal Year 2020 than it did during Fiscal Year

2019?

N/A.

3. If your agency’s appeal backlog increased during Fiscal Year 2020, please

explain why and describe the causes that contributed to your agency not being

able to reduce its backlog. When doing so, please also indicate if any of the

following were contributing factors:

• An increase in the number of incoming appeals.

• A loss of staff.

• An increase in the complexity of the requests received. If possible, please

provide examples or briefly describe the types of complex requests

contributing to your backlog increase.

• Any other reasons – please briefly describe or provide examples when

possible.

N/A.
4. If you had an appeal backlog please report the percentage of appeals that make 

up the backlog out of the total number of appeals received by your agency in 

Fiscal Year 2020. Please use the following calculation based on data from your 

Annual FOIA Report: (backlogged appeals from Section XII.A) divided by

(appeals received from Section VI.A) x 100. If your agency did not receive any 

appeals in Fiscal Year 2020 and/or has no appeal backlog, please answer with 

"N/A."

The percentage of appeals that make up the backlog out of the total number of 

appeals received by ED in Fiscal Year 2020 is 106%. 

C. Backlog Reduction Plans

1. In the 2020 guidelines for Chief FOIA Officer Reports, any agency with a backlog 

of over 1000 requests in Fiscal Year 2019 was asked to provide a plan for 

achieving backlog reduction in the year ahead. Did your agency implement a 

backlog reduction plan last year? If so, describe your agency’s efforts in 

implementing this plan and note if your agency was able to achieve backlog 

reduction in Fiscal Year 2020?

ED was able to fully implement the backlog reduction plan outlined in the 2020 

Chief FOIA Officer Report. By realigning staff, utilizing more contractors, and 

assigning tiger teams with FOIA expertise to assist program offices with backlog 

reduction efforts, ED’s backlog decreased from 914 requests in Fiscal Year 2019 

to 859 requests in Fiscal Year 2020.

2. If your agency had a backlog of more than 1,000 requests in Fiscal Year 2020, 

please explain your agency’s plan to reduce this backlog during Fiscal Year 

2021.

N/A.

D. Status of Oldest Requests, Appeals, and Consultations

Section VII.E, entitled "Pending Requests – Ten Oldest Pending Requests," Section 

VI.C.(5), entitled "Ten Oldest Pending Administrative Appeals," and Section XII.C., 

entitled "Consultations on FOIA Requests – Ten Oldest Consultations Received from 

Other Agencies and Pending at Your Agency," show the ten oldest pending 

requests, appeals, and consultations. You should refer to these numbers from your 

Annual FOIA Reports for both Fiscal Year 2019 and Fiscal Year 2020 when 

completing this section of your Chief FOIA Officer Report.
OLDEST REQUESTS

1. In Fiscal Year 2020, did your agency close the ten oldest pending perfected 

requests that were reported in Section VII.E. of your Fiscal Year 2019 Annual 

FOIA Report?

No, ED was unable to close the ten (10) oldest requests.

2. If no, please provide the number of these requests your agency was able to close 

by the end of the fiscal year, as listed in Section VII.E of your Fiscal Year 2019 

Annual FOIA Report. If you had fewer than ten total oldest requests to close,

please indicate that.

ED was able to close nine (9) of the 10 oldest requests.

3. Beyond work on the ten oldest requests, please describe any steps your agency 

took to reduce the overall age of your pending requests.

The FSC met with program offices throughout the Fiscal Year to assist them with 

developing individual backlog reduction plans. 

TEN OLDEST APPEALS

1. In Fiscal Year 2020, did your agency close the ten oldest appeals that were 

reported pending in Section VII.C.5. of your Fiscal Year 2019 Annual FOIA 

Report?

No, ED was unable to close the ten (10) oldest appeals.

2. If no, please provide the number of these appeals your agency was able to close 

by the end of the fiscal year, as listed in Section VII.C.(5) of your Fiscal Year 

2019 Annual FOIA Report. If you had fewer than ten total oldest appeals to 

close, please indicate that.

ED was able to close nine (9) of the 10 oldest appeals.

3. Beyond work on the ten oldest appeals, please describe any steps your agency 

took to reduce the overall age of your pending appeals.

The FSC met with program offices throughout Fiscal Year 2020 to assist with 

developing individual backlog reduction plans. 

TEN OLDEST CONSULTATIONS

1. In Fiscal Year 2020, did your agency close the ten oldest consultations that were 

reported pending in Section XII.C. of your Fiscal Year 2019 Annual FOIA Report?

Yes. 
2. If no, please provide the number of these consultations your agency was able to 

close by the end of the fiscal year, as listed in Section XII.C. of your Fiscal Year 

2019 Annual FOIA Report. If you had fewer than ten total oldest consultations to 

close, please indicate that.

N/A.

E. Additional Information on Ten Oldest Requests, Appeals, and Consultations & Plans

1. Briefly explain any obstacles your agency faced in closing its ten oldest 

requests, appeals, and consultations from Fiscal Year 2019.

ED believes the plan in place for closing the ten oldest requests, appeals, and 

consultations has removed many of the obstacles, but the single request and 

appeal that remained open in Fiscal Year 202o contained complexities involving 

numerous program offices. We anticipate these cases to be closed in early 

Fiscal Year 2021.

2. If your agency was unable to close any of its ten oldest requests because you 

were waiting to hear back from other agencies on consultations you sent, please 

provide the date the request was initially received by your agency, the date when 

your agency sent the consultation, and the date when you last contacted the 

agency where the consultation was pending.

N/A.

3. If your agency did not close its ten oldest pending requests, appeals, or 

consultations, please provide a plan describing how your agency intends to close 

those “ten oldest” requests, appeals, and consultations during Fiscal Year 2021.

To continue meeting with the assigned program offices to follow developed 

individual backlog reduction plans. These meetings allow the FSC to understand 

the challenges the program offices are facing and to assist as needed. 

F. Success Stories

Federal Student Aid (FSA) FOIA backlog reduction

What began as a rapid response in April 2019, has transitioned into one of FSA’s most 

resilient, resourceful, and results-driven teams. In April 2019, the team started with a 

backlog of 323 open FOIA requests. By December 2020, there were only 30 open 

requests in total.

To improve the processing system, the team adjusted the strategy and deployed a new 

framework. Establishing relationships with subject matter experts, creating visible 

metrics, obtaining the support of senior leadership throughout the agency, and 
enhancing communication with requesters has proven successful at altering the volume 

of request completion rates.

2020 Annual FOIA Awards Ceremony 

This year’s celebration of FOIA held on Thursday, October 29, was bigger and better 

than ever. With more than 100 of their peers and colleagues in attendance, Department 

of Education employees were recognized and honored for their achievements during 

the 2020 fiscal year at the FOIA Appreciation Awards Ceremony online event. The 

number of nominees in FY 2020 deserving of special recognition nearly doubled the 

number in the previous fiscal year (FY 2019). This all happened during the COVID-19 

pandemic, which we know has created many challenges as we all transitioned to off-site 

locations. But none of that stopped our FOIA community from carrying out our 

obligations under FOIA.

Our theme title, “Virtual Reality – Our Success Story,” is characterized by the 

environment we have been interacting in since the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

Creation of e-Discovery Program

The FSC brought on two new full-time employees as part of an effort to stand up ED’s 

first ever FOIA e-Discovery program. Previously, administrative searches were 

collateral duty for employees outside the FSC and not focused exclusively on prioritizing 

FOIA requests. In addition to managing this program, these individuals will be tasked 

with staying abreast of technological advances to facilitate efficiency in ED’s FOIA 

program.