By Katie Wilcox
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Whitten has ordered the Arizona Department of Education to pay 12News, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, more than $100,000 in attorneys fees and costs after settling a public records lawsuit with the station.
In 2025, 12News filed a lawsuit against the department and the Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, demanding access to millions of transaction records detailing reimbursements to parents and parents’ purchases using the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program. According to the latest quarterly report, 99,709 students are enrolled in the program that provides state tax dollars for private school and homeschooling. It is projected to cost more than $1 billion this year.
ADE initially denied access to the financial records, stating that it did not possess the records and “was not obligated to obtain them” from ClassWallet, the state’s contractor that provides the financial management platform parents can use to make tuition payments or purchase educational items.
However, ADE settled the case and turned over 5.5 million transaction records to 12News, court records show. The news outlet has reported on apparent misspending that paid for items not allowed under current rules, including $1,500 gift cards and luxury hotel stays.
After the department produced the records, 12News asked the court to award attorneys fees and costs related to the lawsuit. The court ruled that the amount was “reasonable,” and ordered the state to pay $100,359.51 to cover attorneys fees and costs related to the lawsuit.
“Plaintiffs obtained the central relief they sought through this litigation: access to the ESA transaction information that ADE had not produced before suit,” Whitten wrote in his order.
12News declined to comment on this story. ADE did not immediately respond to The Beam’s request for comment.
Attorney Gregg Leslie, Executive Director of the First Amendment Clinic at the ASU Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law said he hopes the court order will encourage state agencies to promptly produce public records.
“There’s got to be more of a penalty for non-compliance by the state, otherwise this will just keep happening,” Leslie said.
12News’ lawsuit had also demanded records from the Arizona State Treasurer’s Office, but was denied.
The court ruled in July that the Treasurer’s office did not have to produce the records as it was not responsible for “the substantive oversight functions assigned by statute to ADE.”
“The evidence established that ADE, not ASTO, administers the ESA program,” Judge Whitten wrote in his July order.
Katie Wilcox, an investigative reporter for The Beam, previously worked at 12News on the investigative unit that filed the records request in this lawsuit. She was not working at 12News when the station filed its lawsuit.