The tracker now covers 40 Massachusetts school districts with 9 acknowledgments. Cambridge’s portal confirmation carries reference P262427-092126, and four fresh requests — Newburyport, Sudbury, Grafton, and Wachusett Regional — entered the statutory window this week, with an initial-response milestone of October 6.
Four more letters went out this week, and the board grew by four rows before most people noticed. That is how this project actually moves: the mail goes out the moment a district’s published records address can be verified, and the tracker catches up when the row can be written honestly. Newburyport, Sudbury, Grafton, and Wachusett Regional received the same request as the other thirty-six districts — same statute, same scope, same ten business days — and as of this morning all four are named, dated, and counted on the project page.
The Four New Sends
The addresses are the story, because the addresses are where these requests live or die. Newburyport Public Schools received the request at publicrecordsrequest@newburyport.k12.ma.us at 7:36 in the morning on September 22. Sudbury Public Schools received it at rao@sudbury.k12.ma.us, also at 7:36 that morning. Grafton Public Schools received it at cummingsj@grafton.k12.ma.us five minutes earlier, 7:31. Wachusett Regional School District went out the night before, September 21 at 11:19 in the evening, to barry_sclar@wrsd.net — the district’s published records contact.
I will say the quiet part plainly: those four letters were in the mail before they were on the board. A tracker that only grows when its keeper finds a free hour is still a tracker — the mail does not wait for bookkeeping, and the row now exists, dated to the day each request actually went out. The record shows the send; the board shows the send; nothing is rounded off.
Cambridge Writes Its Number Down
On September 21 the City of Cambridge Law Department confirmed, through the city’s public records portal, that the request was received. The confirmation carries a reference number: P262427-092126. That number is now on Cambridge’s row, because a confirmation without its number is half a receipt.
Here is what a portal confirmation legally is, and what it is not. It is proof of delivery into an official municipal system — timestamped, numbered, attributable, the kind of paper that matters if the request ever climbs the appeal staircase under G.L. c. 66, § 10A. It is not an answer. It starts no clock and promises no records; it means the request arrived somewhere that now has to account for it. Cambridge becomes the ninth district to show acknowledged, joining Braintree, Hopkinton, Berlin-Boylston, Whitman-Hanson, Springfield, Ashland, Gloucester, and Lexington. The full statuses, dates, and notes are on the tracker, updated as the mail comes in.
The Milestone Ladder
Ten business days is the statutory window for an initial response, and the board now runs on three dates. October 2 is the milestone for the nineteen districts from the opening wave. October 5 covers the eighteen sends from September 21, Wachusett now among them. October 6 is the milestone for the three districts sent Tuesday morning — Newburyport, Sudbury, and Grafton. A missed date is not a violation; it is a signal, and the appeal path exists for exactly that moment. So the board reads: 40 districts requested, 9 acknowledged, 0 productions posted. Acknowledged is not finished. The substantive answers — fee estimates, extensions, production schedules, the records themselves — are what the next measures.
What This Means for Parents
- The tracker is live and public: all 40 districts, statuses, expected dates, and dated notes are on the project page.
- The four newest rows are inside their statutory window — October 6 is their first milestone, not their deadline.
- Cambridge’s reference number, P262427-092126, is the kind of receipt any parent can generate for their own district by using the DIY request template on the project page.
- Acknowledged is not finished: watch the acknowledged rows for fee estimates and actual productions of settlement records.
If your district is not on the board, ask for your district to be added. If it is, watch it with me — the next milestone lands October 2.