Public Information Act - Texas Tech University

How the Public Information Act Works
Government Code, which conforms the Public Information Act to the requirements of the federal
133
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (“FERPA”), also incorporates the rights of
134
access established by that federal law. To the extent that FERPA conflicts with state law, the
federal statute prevails. 135
In 2006, the United States Department of Education Family Policy Compliance Office informed this
office that FERPA does not permit state and local educational authorities to disclose to this office,
without parental consent, unredacted, personally identifiable information contained in education
records for the purpose of our review in the open records ruling process under the Act. 136
Consequently, state and local educational authorities that receive a request for education records
from a member of the public under the Act must not submit education records to this office in
unredacted form, that is, in a form in which “personally identifiable information” is disclosed. 137
Because our office is prohibited from reviewing these education records to determine whether
appropriate redactions under FERPA have been made, the attorney general will not address the
applicability of FERPA to any records submitted as part of a request for decision. Such
determinations under FERPA must be made by the educational authority in possession of the
138
education records. Questions regarding education records and the application of FERPA should
be directed to:
Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20202-5920
(202) 260-3887
b. Special Rights of Access Created by Other Statutes
Specific statutes other than the Public Information Act grant specific entities or individuals a special
right of access to specific information. For example, section 901.160 of the Occupations Code
makes information about a licensee held by the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy available
for inspection by the licensee. Exceptions in the Public Information Act cannot authorize the board
139
to withhold this information from the licensee. Similarly, the exceptions in the Public Information
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
20 U.S.C. § 1232g.
Open Records Decision No. 431 at 2–3 (1985).
Id. at 3.
A copy of this letter may be found on the Office of the Attorney General’s website at:
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/20060725usdoe.pdf.
See 34 C.F.R. § 99.3 (defining “personally identifiable information”).
If the educational authority does obtain parental consent to submit unredacted education records and the
educational authority seeks a ruling from this office on the proper redaction of those education records in
compliance with FERPA, we will rule accordingly.
Open Records Decision No. 451 at 4 (1986); see also Open Records Decision Nos. 500 at 4–5 (1988)
(considering property owner’s right of access to appraisal records under Tax Code), 478 at 3 (1987)
(considering intoxilyzer test subject’s right of access to test results under statutory predecessor to Transp. Code
2012 Public Information Handbook • Office of the Attorney General
31