You have the right to:

• Prompt access to information that is not confidential or otherwise protected;
• Receive treatment equal to all other requestors, including accommodation in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements;
• Receive certain kinds of information without exceptions, like the voting record of public officials, and other information;
• Receive a written itemized statement of estimated charges, when charges will exceed $40, in advance of work being started and opportunity to modify the request in response to the itemized statement;
• Choose whether to inspect the requested information (most often at no charge), receive copies of the information or both;
• A waiver or reduction of charges if the governmental body determines that access to the information primarily benefits the general public;
• Receive a copy of the communication from the governmental body asking the office of the accepted exceptions, or if the communication discloses the requested information, a redacted copy;
• Lodge a written complaint about overcharges for public information with the General Services Commission. Complaints of other possible violations may be filed with the county or district attorney of the county where the governmental body, other than a state agency, is located. If the complaint is against the county or district attorney, the complaint must be filed with the Office of the Attorney General.

Local District Policy GBAA (Requests for Information located on campuses) Updated June 20, 2005
Persons desiring to review documents maintained by the District and classified as Open Records shall submit their request in writing. The request shall properly identify the document, or documents, to be inspected.
The applicant’s name and address must be set forth on the application. A picture identification card, such as a driver’s license, may be required to verify the person’s identity.

Requests will be handled in the order in which they are received. In the event the requested documents are in active use or in storage and, therefore, not available at the time the application to review documents is submitted, the Superintendent or designee shall set forth this fact in writing on the application, and set a date
and hour at which time the requested materials will be available for inspection.

Persons inspecting documents may do so only in campus administrative offices or the Education Center, and a District employee shall be available for assistance.

The Superintendent or designee may limit the number of pages that can be copied and supplied during a person’s visit, if the number of copies requested is beyond the reasonable capacity of the available personnel and machines. Copies in excess of the number available during a person’s visit will be made and mailed to the
applicant in the order in which the request is received.

Requests to review documents must be approved by an employee authorized to do so.

Documents may be inspected during regular school hours.

All governmental bodies responding to information requests have the responsibility to:

• Establish reasonable procedures for inspecting or copying public information and inform requestors of these procedures;
• Treat all requestors uniformly and shall give to the requestor all reasonable comfort and facility, including accommodations in accordance with ADA requirements;
• Be informed about open record laws and educate employees on the requirements of those laws;
• Inform requestors of the estimated charges greater than $40 and any changes in the estimated above 20 percent of the original estimate, and confirm that the requestor accepts the charges, or has amended the request, in writing before finalizing the request;
• Inform the requestor if the information cannot be provided promptly and set a date and time to provide it within a reasonable time;
• Request a ruling from the Office of the Attorney General regarding any information the governmental body wishes to withhold, and send a copy of the request for ruling, or a redacted copy, to the requestor;
• Segregate public information from information that may be withheld and provide that public information promptly;
• Make a good faith attempt to inform third parties when their proprietary information is being requested from the governmental body;
• Respond in writing to all written communications from the General Services Commission regarding charges for the information. Respond to the Office of the Attorney General regarding complaints about violations of the Act.

1. Submit a request by mail, fax, email or in person according to a governmental body's reasonable procedures.
2. Include enough description and detail about the information requested to enable the governmental body to accurately identify and locate the information requested.
3. Cooperate with the governmental body's reasonable efforts to clarify the type or amount of information requested.

   A. Information to be released

• You may review it promptly, and if it cannot be produced within 10 working days, the public information officer will notify you in writing of the reasonable date and time when it will be available.
• Keep all appointments to inspect records and to pick up copies. Failure to keep appointments may result in losing the opportunity to inspect the information at the time requested.
  
  B. Information that may be withheld due to an exception

• By the 10th business day after a governmental body receives your written request, a governmental body must:
  1. request an Attorney General opinion and state which exceptions apply;
  2. notify the requestor of the referral to the Attorney General; and
  3. notify third parties if the request involves their proprietary information.
• Faliure to request an Attorney General opinion and notify the requestor within 10 business days will result in a presumption that the information is open unless there is a compelling reason to withhold it.
• Requestors may send a letter to the Attorney General arguing for release, and may review arguments made by the governmental body. If the arguments disclose the requested information, the requestor may obtain a redacted copy.
• The Attorney General may request an additional 10 working day extension.
  

Cost of Records

• You must respond to any written estimate of charges within 10 days of the date the governmental body sent it or the request is considered automatically withdrawn.
• If estimated costs exceed $100.00 (or $50.00 if a governmental body has fewer than 16 full time employees), the governmental body may require a bond, prepayment or deposit.
• You may ask the governmental body to determine whether providing the information primarily benefits the general public, resulting in a waiver or reduction of charges.
• Make a timely payment for all mutually agreed charges. A governmental body can demand payment of overdue balances exceeding $100.00, or obtain a security deposit, before processing additional requests from you.
  
• GUIDELINES FOR COPY CHARGES (Updated June 20, 2005)
  The charges in this exhibit, to recover costs associated with providing copies of public information, are based on estimated average costs to governmental bodies across the state.
  
  1. Standard-paper copy. The charge for standard-paper copies reproduced by means of
  an office machine copier or a computer printer is $.10 per page or part of a page. Each
  side that has recorded information is considered a page.
  2. Nonstandard-size copy. The charges for nonstandard copies are:
  a. Diskette — $1.00
  b. Magnetic tape — actual cost
  c. Data cartridge — actual cost
  d. Tape cartridge — actual cost
  e. Rewritable CD (CD–RW) — $1.00
  f. Non-rewritable CD (CD–R) — $1.00
  g. Digital video disc (DVD) — $3.00
  h. JAZ drive — actual cost
  i. Other electronic media — actual cost
  j. VHS video cassette — $2.50
  k. Audio cassette — $1.00
  l. Oversize paper copy (e.g., 11” x 17”, greenbar, bluebar, not including maps and
  photographs using specialty paper) — $.50
  m. Specialty paper (e.g., Mylar, blueprint, blueline, map, photographic) — actual cost
  
  Personnel charges are as follows:
  1. If a particular request requires the services of a programmer in order to execute an
  existing program or to create a new program so that requested information may be
  accessed and copied, the District may charge for the programmer’s time. The hourly
  charge for a programmer is $28.50 an hour, which includes fringe benefits. Only programming
  services will be charged at this hourly rate. Districts that do not have inhouse
  programming capabilities will comply with requests in accordance with Government
  Code 552.231. [See CQ]
  2. The charge for labor costs incurred in processing a request for public information is
  $15 an hour, which includes fringe benefits. The labor charge includes the actual
  time to locate, compile, and reproduce the requested information.
  3. A labor charge will not be billed in connection with complying with requests that are for
  50 or fewer pages of paper records, unless the documents to be copied are located in
  two or more separate buildings that are not physically connected to each other or a
  remote storage facility. For purposes of this provision, two buildings connected by a
  covered or open sidewalk, an elevated or underground passageway, or a similar facility,
  are not considered to be separate buildings.
  4. A labor charge should not be recovered for any time spent by an attorney, legal assistant,
  or any other person who reviews the requested information:
  a. To determine whether the District will raise any exceptions to disclosure of the
  requested information under Government Code, Subchapter C, Chapter 552; or
  b. To research or prepare a request for a ruling by the attorney general’s office pursuant
  to section 552.301 of Government Code. [See CQ]
  5. When confidential information pursuant to a mandatory exception of the Act is mixed
  with public information in the same page, a labor charge may be recovered for time
  spent to redact, blackout, or otherwise obscure confidential information in order to
  release the public information. A labor charge will not be made for redacting confidential
  information for requests of 50 or fewer pages, unless the request also qualifies as a
  labor charge pursuant to Government Code 552.261(a)(1) or (2).
  
  Overhead charges are as follows:
  1. Whenever any labor charge is applicable to a request, the District may include in the
  charges direct and indirect costs, in addition to the specific labor charge. This overhead
  charge would cover such costs as depreciation of capital assets, rent, maintenance and
  repair, utilities, and administrative overhead. If the District chooses to recover such
  costs, a charge will be made in accordance with the methodology described in item 3
  below. Although an exact calculation of costs will vary, the use of a standard charge will
  avoid complication in calculating such costs and will provide uniformity for charges
  made statewide.
  2. An overhead charge will not be made for requests for copies of 50 or fewer pages of
  standard paper records unless the request also qualifies for a labor charge pursuant to
  Government Code 552.261(a)(1) or (2).
  3. The overhead charge will be computed at 20 percent of the charge made to cover any
  labor costs associated with a particular request. For example, if one hour of labor is
  used for a particular request, the formula would be as follows: Labor charge for locating,
  compiling, and reproducing, $15.00 x .20 = $3.00; or programming labor charge,
  $28.50 x .20 = $5.70. If a request requires one hour of labor charge for locating, compiling,
  and reproducing information ($15.00 per hour); and one hour of programming
  labor charge ($28.50 per hour), the combined overhead would be: $15.00 + $28.50 =
  $43.50 x .20 = $8.70.
  
  Microfiche and microfilm charges are as follows:
  1. If the District already has information that exists on microfiche or microfilm and has copies
  available for sale or distribution, the charge for a copy must not exceed the cost of
  its reproduction. If no copies of the requested microfiche or microfilm are available and
  the information on the fiche or film can be released in its entirety, the District should
  make a copy of the fiche or film. The charge for a copy must not exceed the cost of reproduction.
  Districts that do not have in-house capability to reproduce microfiche or microfilm
  are encouraged to contact the Texas State Library before having the reproduction
  made commercially.
  2. If only a master copy of information in microform is maintained, the charge is $.10 per
  page for standard-size paper copies plus any applicable labor and overhead charge for
  more than 50 copies.
  
  Remote document retrieval charges are as follows:
  1. Due to limited on-site capacity of storage of documents, it is frequently necessary to
  store information that is not in current use in remote storage locations. Every effort
  should be made by the District to store current records on-site. To the extent that the
  retrieval of documents results in a charge to comply with a request, it is permissible to
  recover costs of such services for requests that qualify for labor charges under current
  law.
  2. If the District has a contract with a commercial records storage company, whereby the
  private company charges a fee to locate, retrieve, deliver, and return to storage the
  needed record(s), no additional labor charge will be factored in for time spent locating
  documents at the storage location by the private company’s personnel. If after delivery
  to the District, the boxes must still be searched for records that are responsive to the
  request, a labor charge is allowed in accordance with item 2 under personnel charges,
  above.
  
  Computer resource charges are as follows:
  1. The computer resource charge is a utilization charge for computers based on the amortized
  cost of acquisition, lease, operation, and maintenance of computer resources,
  which might include, but is not limited to, some or all of the following: central processing
  units (CPUs), servers, disk drives, local area networks (LANs), printers, tape
  drives, other peripheral devices, communications devices, software, and system
  utilities.
  2. These computer resource charges are not intended to substitute for cost recovery
  methodologies or charges made for purposes other than responding to public information
  requests.
  3. The charges in this section are averages based on a survey of governmental bodies
  with a broad range of computer capabilities. Each district using this cost recovery
  charge will determine which category(ies) of computer system(s) used to fulfill the public
  information request most closely fits its existing system(s) and set its charge accordingly:
  
  - Mainframe $10 per CPU minute
  -Midsize $ 1.50 per CPU minute
  -Client/Server $ 2.20 per clock hour
  -PC or LAN $ 1 per clock hour
  
  4. The charge made to recover the computer utilization cost is the actual time the computer takes to execute a particular program times the applicable rate. The CPU charge
  is not meant to apply to programming or printing time; rather, it is solely to recover
  costs associated with the actual time required by the computer to execute a program.
  This time, called CPU time, can be read directly from the CPU clock, and most frequently
  will be a matter of seconds. If programming is required to comply with a particular
  request, the appropriate charge that may be recovered for programming time is
  described above, at Personnel Charges. No charge should be made for computer printout
  time. For example, if a mainframe computer is used, and the processing time is 20
  seconds, the charges would be as follows: $10.00 / 3 = $3.33; or $10.00/(60 / 20) = $3.33.
  A district that does not have in-house computer capabilities will comply with requests in
  accordance with Government Code 552.231. [See CQ]
  The actual cost of miscellaneous supplies, such as labels, boxes, and other supplies used to produce the requested information may be added to the total charge for public information. Governmental bodies may add any related postal or shipping expenses that are necessary to transmit the reproduced information to the requesting party.
  
  Pursuant to Office of the Comptroller of Public Accounts’ rules, sales tax will not be added on charges for public information. (34 TAC, Part 1, Chapter 3, Subchapter O, Sections 3.341 and 3.342).