Public Records

The Wisconsin Public Records Law authorizes requesters to inspect or obtain copies of “records” maintained by government “authorities.” The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an authority that must adhere to the public records law. The law states that records held by the University are presumed to be open to inspection and copying, but there are some exceptions.

Wisconsin Stat. § 19.36(2) – (13) lists records specifically exempt from disclosure pursuant to the public records statute itself. Other state and federal statutes and court decisions also require that certain types of records remain confidential, such as:

• The home address, home email address, home telephone number, or social security number of an employee.
• Student records and personally identifiable information contained in student records.
• Patient health care records pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
• Information used for staff management planning, including performance evaluations, judgments, or recommendations concerning future salary adjustments or other wage treatments, management bonus plans, promotions, job assignments, letters of reference, or other comments or ratings relating to employees.

Requirements of the public records law apply to records that exist at the time a public records request is made. The public records law does not require authorities to provide requested information if no responsive record exists, and generally does not require authorities to create new records in order to fulfill public records requests. The Public Records Law only applies to government records. A records custodian is not required by the Public Records Law to answer questions on a topic of interest to a requester.

The public records statutes do not address the general duty to retain records, however UW-Madison records retention schedules and disposition can be found here: UW-Madison Records Retention and Disposition.