Each state has different laws governing the release of information by public entities. Often called open records laws, public records laws, or FOIA laws after the federal Freedom of Information Act, these laws regulate the process through which a person can request public records. Those laws often set the length of time within which a public body must respond to a records request.
As of May 2021, 13 states do not have a mandated response time. Of the 37 states that have response time limits, 10 allow agencies to extend response times in certain cases, while 27 states allow no exceptions. Eight states require responses in 3 days or less, 10 in 5 days or less, 13 in 10 days or less, and 6 in 20 days or less. The longest possible response times are in Iowa and South Carolina, which both require responses to be made within 10 days but allow extensions of up to 20 days. The shortest possible response times are in Indiana and Mississippi, where public entities must respond to most requests within 24 hours.
Some states do not specify a required time to respond to a FOIA request and only require that responses be prompt or made within a reasonable amount of time. State statutes with clear response time limits either require all responses to be made before a certain number of days or allow a range of response time based on certain circumstances. For example, California law states that a response must be given within 10 days for most requests, but also allows responses within 14 days under unusual circumstances.
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