The 2025 General Assembly session saw the introduction of an unprecedented number of bills impacting the Freedom of Information Act, most of them negatively.
But thanks to the stellar work of CCFOI’s lobbyist, Elizabeth Gemski, and members of the FOI Commission and the CCFOI board, only a few bills were approved and of those, amendments were added to mitigate the corrosive effect on the FOI Act.
In sum, 2025 was an extremely successful legislative session in terms of defending government transparency and the public’s right to know.
Bills that Passed:
SB 1520, An Act Concerning an Amendment to the Freedom of Information Act Concerning Education Records – This bill establishes that the underlying exemption complies with language in the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
HB 6883, An Act Protecting the Location of Housing for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Victims – This bill shields the addresses of the above-mentioned houses from the FOI Act and allows agencies to go into executive session when discussing their locations. The language was modified to give agencies the option to go into executive session, rather than requiring them to do so.
HB 7255, An Act Concerning Judicial Brach Operations and Procedures and the Duties of Judicial Branch Personnel – This bill creates an Office of Information Privacy within the Judicial branch. The bill was amended so that it doesn’t significantly affect FOI Act provisions that require the posting of certain information online.
Key Bills that were Defeated:
SB 1226, An Act Establishing an Exemption from Disclosure for Certain Higher Education Records Pertaining to Teaching or Research under the Freedom of Information Act — This was the CCFOI’s highest priority and the bill’s defeat represented a huge victory. The bill would have shielded from public disclosure all records arising out of research and teaching (with the exception of budgets) at public colleges and universities. Although the bill was approved by the Government Administration and Elections Committee (GAE), it wasn’t taken up by the Senate or the House.
SB 1516, An Act Concerning the Secretary of the State’s Recommendations Related to Voting and Elections in this State – This bill would have restricted access to municipalities’ voter records only making them accessible to certain categories of requesters and for limited purposes. This proposal was riddled with problems and would have made it harder to deter voter fraud. Its language was vague and confusing in that it didn’t define such terms as harassment, commercial purposes, election-related, scholarly or journalistic.
HB 7217, An Act Concerning Various Revisions to the Education Statutes – This bill would have allowed school boards to go into executive session whenever they held conversations with school superintendents, regardless of the purpose. Not only would this have prevented the public from knowing what their education officials were discussing, but it potentially opened the floodgates for other local officials (e.g., mayors, town managers, first selectmen, etc.) to ask for the same executive-session privileges.
SB 1233, An Act Exempting the Name and Address of an Individual Reporting an Allegation Involving Bigotry or Bias and of the Alleged Offender from Disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act – This bill would have made it impossible to find out information contained in a state database about hate crimes being committed in Connecticut, including those involving allegations of bigotry or bias based on race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sex and sexual orientation.
SB 1436, An Act Concerning Police and Department of Correction Data Reporting Requirements – This bill would have exempted from the FOI Act all records related to a complaint filed against a police or correction officer until the conclusion of an investigation. It would have allowed law enforcement agencies to indefinitely withhold records alleging misconduct. If an officer were to resign before final resolution, the complaint would have never been made public.
SB 1463, An Act Prohibiting the Disclosure of the Name and Residential Address of Lottery Winners under the Freedom of Information Act – Under existing law, public disclosure provides assurance that winnings have been distributed fairly and there hasn’t been wrongdoing by individuals who are licensed to dispense lottery tickets. If this bill had passed, irregularities could have been hidden from public scrutiny. The success of the lottery depends on the public having confidence in the honesty and integrity of the system.
SB 1209, SB 1433 and HB 6850 – Each of these bills would have exempted from public disclosure the residential addresses of various groups of state and local employees, including public school teachers, employees of the attorney general’s office and all state employees. Shielding addresses gives people a false sense of security because residential addresses of nearly everyone are readily available on the Internet. As opponents of these bills have testified year after year, the horse is out of the barn and passing laws such as these are meaningless.
SB 798, An Act Authorizing Redaction Fees for Disclosure of Police Records of Body-Worn Recording Equipment or Dashboard Cameras – This bill would have authorized a public agency to charge a redaction fee for the disclosure of a record created by police body-worn recording equipment or dashboard cameras that contains data not authorized to be disclosed under state or federal law.
Toward the end of the session there were additional threats to the FOI Act that did not make it over the finish line. These included amendments introduced on the floor of the House and Senate that were thwarted by FOI advocates.