District of Columbia · Freedom of Information Act

Run DC FOIA on a clock that leaves no room to drift

For District agencies, boards, and commissions — AccessPoint computes the 15-business-day deadline and its 10-day extension, applies the § 2-534 exemptions, and tracks appeals to the Mayor and on to Superior Court.

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District of Columbia — FOIA at a glance

Response deadline
15 business days from receipt
Extension
Up to 10 additional business days in unusual circumstances, on written notice
Exemptions
The § 2-534 categories, cited on the response
Construction
A strong pro-disclosure presumption; exemptions read narrowly
Appeal
To the Mayor, then to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
Languages
English

Built for District of Columbia — FOIA

One platform for the whole access-and-privacy mandate, pre-configured for this regime and running in your own Microsoft 365 tenant.

15 business days, plus 10

AccessPoint computes the deadline on receipt over the District's holiday calendar and tracks the 10-business-day extension with the unusual circumstance relied on and the written notice given.

The § 2-534 exemptions

Each exemption ships as a citable ground carried onto the redaction and into the response letter, so a denial names its basis rather than gesturing at one.

Appeals to the Mayor

Track an administrative appeal with its own workspace, filing date, correspondence, and decision, linked to the request it came from — and on to Superior Court where it goes there.

Built for a pro-disclosure statute

DC FOIA is construed in favour of disclosure and its exemptions are read narrowly. Recording why a specific passage was withheld — not merely which exemption was chosen — is what survives that reading.

Records from Microsoft 365

Collect responsive records straight from SharePoint, Teams, and Exchange with custodian attestations and a chain of custody.

In your own tenant

Requests, records, and audit history stay inside your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant — no third-party cloud and no vendor access.

Narrow exemptions, published decisions

DC's appeal decisions are written down and public. So is the quality of your reasoning.

The District's FOIA is deliberately generous: a strong presumption of disclosure, exemptions to be read narrowly, and an administrative appeal that produces a written decision an agency cannot quietly absorb. When the Mayor's Office of Legal Counsel reviews a denial, it is reviewing the agency's stated reasoning against a record — and those decisions are published, cited by requesters, and read by other agencies. An exemption asserted over a whole document tends not to survive that; a line-by-line record showing what was withheld, on which ground, and why segregation was or was not possible generally does. AccessPoint records redactions that way by default, so the response an agency sends and the file behind it are consistent under review.

15 + 10 Both clocks computed, with the extension's ground recorded.
Line-by-line grounds Exemptions applied to passages, not whole documents.
Appeal-ready A record built for a written, published decision.

Configured out of the box

Installing the us-dc-foia jurisdiction pack seeds your tenant with everything this regime needs. It is a starting point built from public information about the legislation, not legal advice — your legal counsel validates and adjusts it for your tenant.

Pack content last reviewed: 2026-08-10

Related guide: FOI Workflow Quick Check
  • The District of Columbia FOIA as the legal-authority spine
  • The 15-business-day clock and 10-business-day extension over the District's holiday calendar
  • The § 2-534 exemptions, colour-coded for redaction and citable line by line
  • Segregation handling, so releasable portions are produced with the withheld passages identified
  • Fee categories and waivers on the statutory basis
  • Administrative appeals to the Mayor, with filing windows, correspondence, and decisions
  • Superior Court litigation tracking linked to the originating request
  • A timestamped audit trail for every decision on the request
A jurisdiction pack's detail panel in AccessPoint settings, showing the pack description, version, what's new, and the checklist of items it imports: legal authorities, calendars, request statuses, request types, extension reasons, requestor categories and consultation types Click to enlarge
What a pack looks like in Settings (the Ontario municipal pack shown): the description, the version and what changed in it, and every item it imports with its statutory basis. Anything you have customized is never overwritten on update.

District of Columbia — FOIA Questions

What is the DC FOIA deadline?
15 business days from receipt, extendable by up to 10 additional business days in unusual circumstances with written notice to the requester. AccessPoint computes both dates over the District's holiday calendar and records the circumstance relied on when an extension is taken.

How do appeals work?
A requester may appeal a denial to the Mayor, in practice handled by the Mayor's Office of Legal Counsel, which issues a written decision; an action in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia is available after. AccessPoint tracks the appeal as a matter linked to the originating request, with its filing date, correspondence, and outcome.

Does the platform support line-by-line redaction?
Yes, and it matters here. DC FOIA is construed in favour of disclosure and its exemptions are read narrowly, so withholding an entire document where portions are releasable is a common ground of reversal. AccessPoint applies exemptions to passages, carries the citation onto each one, and records the segregation decision.

Where do the records reside?
Entirely within your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant. Requests, responsive records, redactions, and audit history never leave your control — no third-party cloud and no vendor access.

Go deeper

AccessPoint for Alabama A brand-new response clock, layered on Alabama's 1981 Stone balancing test AccessPoint for Alaska Silence is a denial, then a two-step appeal — agency head, then superior court AccessPoint for Arizona Open records on a balancing test, no exemption list FOI request management software The full request lifecycle — computed deadlines, records collection, redaction, audit. AccessPoint vs. GovQA Granicus Records Request Management — requests only, vendor cloud. AccessPoint vs. NextRequest CivicPlus's public-records platform — strong portal, vendor cloud only.

Flat annual pricing, published in full. Every feature in every size — access requests, privacy impact assessments, breach response, complaints, video & audio redaction, and AI Assist. No per-user or per-module fees.

  • Under 500 employees$2,990/yr
  • 500–2,000 employees$7,990/yr
  • Over 2,000 employees$14,990/yr

See full pricing Build the business case

Run DC FOIA in Your Own Tenant

Try AccessPoint free for 30 days, configured for the District of Columbia. No credit card required.

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