How the Data Practices Act Works in Minnesota

Minnesota's law is the Government Data Practices Act, Minnesota Statutes Chapter 13, and it is built on a presumption: all government data are public unless a state or federal law or a temporary classification provides that they are not. Government data means all recorded information a government entity has, which the Department of Transportation's public request guide spells out as paper, electronic files, email, discs and photographs alike. The Act also requires state agencies to keep their data in a way that makes public data easy for the public to reach, and gives everyone the right to inspect public data free of charge as well as to buy copies.

Requests go to the entity's responsible authority. The Data Practices Office in the Department of Administration explains who that is: at a state agency the commissioner, chief executive or a person the governing body appoints; at a city or school district an employee the governing body appoints; at a county each elected official for their own office, with an appointed employee responsible for information held outside those offices and the director responsible for a county social services office; and in a constitutional office the attorney general, state auditor or secretary of state. Requests should cite Chapter 13 rather than the federal Freedom of Information Act, which does not apply to a Minnesota entity. For Minnesota records held locally, see the Minnesota county pages.

  • Ask for data, not answers: an entity must respond to a request to inspect or copy data, but it is not required to answer a question.
  • No name, no reason: an entity cannot require a requester to identify themselves or to say why the data are wanted.
  • Appropriate and prompt: public data requests have no day count; a request for data about yourself must be met within ten business days.
  • Free to look: inspection costs nothing, a hundred or fewer black and white pages cost twenty five cents a side, and other copies cost actual cost.

Written by SearchSystems.net from Minnesota's own systems: the Minnesota Data Practices Office, the office's guide to requesting data from a Minnesota government entity, the office's requesting data pages, the Department of Transportation guide for members of the public requesting information, the Department of Health handbook chapter on the Act, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.

The difference between a request and a question

The single most useful thing in the state's published guidance is a pair of sentences showing what a request has to look like. Under the Act a government entity is required to respond if you ask to inspect or get copies of government data, but it does not have to answer questions, and the Data Practices Office illustrates that with two versions of the same enquiry. Asking why the county board decided to end the park programme is a question the entity need not answer.

Asking to inspect all data that document the county board's decision to end the park programme is a proper request for government data. The same guidance tells requesters to ask to review an entity's access policies and procedures first, because every entity must publish how it handles requests, and to inspect before ordering copies, since inspection is free and an estimate can be asked for afterwards. The Act does not require an entity to create data that does not exist, nor to produce an existing record in a new format, so a request for paper records does not oblige an agency to digitise them.

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Anonymity, and its one practical cost

An entity cannot require anyone to identify themselves or explain the reason for a data request, and the state's sample letter goes as far as suggesting a requester use a post box or a newly created free email address, with the signature line marked optional. The limits are practical rather than legal: an address is needed if copies are to be posted, and an entity that does not understand a request and has no way to reach the requester cannot process it.

Agencies deal with this by giving an anonymous requester the contact details needed to check on progress themselves. The Department of Transportation adds the routing advice that applies everywhere in the state, which is to send a request to the data practices staff rather than to a general address or a particular office, where it may be delayed or lost.

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How quickly, and why there is no number

For public data the standard is that an entity must respond appropriately and promptly, and the Department of Health's guidance explains what moves that standard: the scope of the request, the size and complexity of the entity, the type and quantity of data asked for, the clarity of the request and the number of staff available to answer it. Agencies are candid about the range. The Department of Transportation tells requesters that fulfilment can take a day or several months depending on the volume of responsive data, the workload of the employees collecting it and the number of requests in hand, and that broad or unclear requests often yield high volumes that take weeks or months to review and produce.

Where an entity holds no responsive data it must say so as soon as reasonably possible; where it holds data that are not public it must say that as soon as reasonably possible too; and where the data are public it arranges free inspection or provides copies as soon as reasonably possible, in installments as material becomes available and in electronic form where it can. One request type does carry a deadline. A person asking for data about themselves asks under section 13.04 subdivision 3, and the state's own sample letter states that the entity is required to comply within ten business days.

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A refusal has to cite a section

Minnesota is strict about the form of a refusal. Where an entity decides that requested data are not public it must tell the requester, orally at the time or in writing as soon as possible afterwards, and it must cite the specific statutory section, temporary classification or specific provision of federal law that classifies the data as private, confidential, nonpublic or protected nonpublic. The Department of Health states the point by example: saying that the data cannot be given out because of the data privacy act is not an appropriate response, because the specific section must be named.

If a requester asks for a written certification that the request has been denied, the entity must provide it, citing that same authority. Beyond refusals, the Act controls release in the other direction as well: an entity may disclose private, confidential, nonpublic or protected nonpublic data only where a state, local or federal law specifically authorises it, or under an order of a district court judge or administrative hearing officer.

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What copies cost

Charges come from section 13.03 subdivision 3(c). For a hundred or fewer pages of black and white letter or legal size paper, the rate is twenty five cents a page for a one sided copy and fifty cents for a two sided copy. For most other copies, where no charge is set by statute or rule, the price is the actual cost of searching for and retrieving the data and of making the copies or transmitting them electronically, which an agency works out from employee time, the cost of the material copied onto, whether paper, disc or drive, and any postage.

Where a copy cannot be produced internally, such as a large map, the actual price charged by the outside vendor is passed on. Two features soften this in practice. Agencies must assign retrieval and copying to the lowest salaried employee appropriate to each task, and many waive small bills altogether, the Department of Transportation publishing a ten dollar threshold below which it does not charge at all.

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Reading a Minnesota response

The checks worth running here are different from those in a deadline state. Did the request ask for data rather than for an explanation, since only the first creates a duty. Did it go to the responsible authority, which in county work may be the sheriff or the auditor rather than a central office. Did the entity cite a specific section for anything withheld or redacted, and was a written certification asked for if it did not. Was the inspection offered free, and does any invoice look like actual cost worked out on the lowest appropriate salary rather than a flat hourly rate.

And where a person is asking about themselves rather than about the public's business, the ten business day period in section 13.04 is the one thing in Minnesota practice that can be counted on a calendar.

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Questions about public records requests in Minnesota

How fast must a Minnesota entity respond?
For public data, appropriately and promptly, with no fixed number of days; what counts depends on the scope of the request, the entity's size, the quantity of data and the staff available. A request for data about yourself must be met within ten business days.
Do I have to give my name or reason?
No. An entity cannot require a requester to identify themselves or explain why they want the data, although it needs an address to post copies and cannot process a request it cannot understand or ask about.
Who do I send a Minnesota request to?
The entity's responsible authority: a commissioner or appointee at a state agency, an appointed employee at a city or school district, each elected official for their own office at a county, or the attorney general, state auditor or secretary of state in a constitutional office.
What does a Minnesota copy cost?
Twenty five cents a page for up to a hundred one sided black and white letter or legal pages, fifty cents two sided, and otherwise the actual cost of searching, retrieving and copying or transmitting, with retrieval assigned to the lowest salaried employee appropriate to the task.
What must a refusal say?
The specific statutory section, temporary classification or federal provision that classifies the data as not public. A general reference to data privacy is not an adequate answer, and a written certification of the denial must be given on request.
Will an agency answer my question about the records?
It does not have to. The Act obliges an entity to respond to a request to inspect or copy data, not to answer questions, which is why the state advises asking for all data that document a decision rather than asking why the decision was made.

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Minnesota's other public records guides on this site are the Minnesota background check guide for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension service, the Minnesota court records guide for the judicial branch record search, the Minnesota arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, and the Minnesota county pages for every county office.