This bill amends and reenacts parts of Washington’s public records law (RCW 42.56.250 and RCW 42.56.320) to add a set of new exemptions and disclosure procedures for personnel, employment, and certain licensing records. It creates or clarifies exemptions for categories including investigatory records of discrimination/harassment complaints, identifying information for employees who claim survivor status of specified offenses or participate in the state address confidentiality program, photographs and month/year of birth in personnel files (with media access to photos and full birth date in most cases), GPS data that would indicate an employee’s residence, criminal history checks for board staff finalist candidates, benefit enrollment information maintained by the Health Care Authority for PEBB/SEBB, voluntarily submitted personal demographic details, and individual responses to voluntary agency surveys. The act also reenacts RCW 42.56.250 and amends RCW 42.56.320. The bill makes procedural changes to how agencies must handle requests: when a request seeks records located exclusively in an employee’s personnel, payroll, supervisor, or training file the agency must notify the employee, any union representing the employee, and the requester and wait at least ten days before releasing nonexempt information; investigative records are exempt while an investigation is active and, after the complainant is notified of the outcome, may be disclosed only with redaction of names, images, job titles, email addresses, and phone numbers and with alteration of voices on audio unless those individuals consent. It provides that an elected government official’s name and title are not redacted after an investigation is complete and specifies that sworn statements asserting survivor status must be verified by the agency, expire after two years, and may be renewed. The bill also defines or references meanings for terms such as “deidentified,” “anonymized,” “aggregated,” “verified,” and “personal demographic details,” and allows release of exempted data in deidentified/aggregated forms in many cases. Some specifics are missing from the extracted text: the full text of subsection (1)(d) referenced by several provisions is not included here, the excerpt does not show the full amendment to RCW 42.56.320, and several cross‑referenced statutory definitions and the complete bill text are not present. The extracted material does state Section 1 of the act expires June 1, 2028, and Section 2 takes effect June 1, 2028.

If enacted as excerpted, public agencies would be required to withhold a broad set of employee-related information from routine public disclosure and to follow new notice and redaction procedures: agencies must notify employees, their unions, and requesters and wait at least ten days before releasing nonexempt personnel records; investigatory files stay exempt while active and, after a complaint is resolved, identifying details and voices on recordings must be redacted or altered unless people consent; employees can obtain exemptions for identifying information by filing verified sworn statements that expire after two years or by participating in the state address confidentiality program; certain items (GPS indicating a residence, benefit enrollment details, voluntarily submitted demographic data, and individual survey responses) are exempt except in deidentified/aggregated form, while the news media still get access to employee photos and full birthdates and the survivor exemption does not shield records from news media requests. The groups most affected are employing/public agencies (which will face added responsibilities to verify sworn statements, keep related documentation confidential, perform redactions/voice alterations, and limit releases), state benefit and higher education offices (which must treat demographic and benefit enrollment data as exempt unless deidentified), employees (who gain expanded privacy options but must follow the verification process and renew every two years), and the news media (whose access is narrowed in some respects but preserved for photos and full birthdates). The changes will likely increase administrative workload and compliance costs and change what requesters can obtain, but key portions of the bill text and some cross-referenced details are missing from the provided excerpts, so timing and the full scope of requirements are uncertain; Section 1 is set to expire June 1, 2028 and Section 2 takes effect June 1, 2028.