Request By:
Mr. Hugo Miller, Principal
McDowell School
McDowell, Kentucky 41647
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Carl Miller, Assistant Attorney General
Mrs. Ann Bailey has appealed to the Attorney General pursuant to KRS 61.880 your alleged failure to comply with the Kentucky Open Records Law. She states that you furnished her some materials which she requested but have not allowed her to inspect one document described as "the list of names of the ten students receiving $10.00 and copies of materials showing how this list was compiled."
OPINION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
KRS 61.880(1) provides as follows:
"Each public agency, upon any request for records made under KRS 61.878 to 61.884, shall determine within three days (excepting Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays) after the receipt of any such request whether to comply with the request and shall notify in writing the person making the request within three days of its decision. Any agency response denying, in whole or in part, inspection of any records shall include a statement of the specific exception authorizing the withholding of the record and a brief explanation of how the exception applies to the record withheld. The response shall be issued by the official custodian or under his authority, and it shall constitute final agency action."
School activity funds are under the control and are the responsibility of the principal and the principal is the official custodian of the records. Any person is entitled to inspect the business records concerning such funds but any items in the records which are made confidential by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 or any state law may be deleted from the records before they are made available for public inspection.
It is our opinion that you have not acted in accordance with the Open Records Law since you have not either made the requested records available for public inspection or given the requester a reason why the records, or a part of them, will be kept confidential.
You have the right to challenge this opinion in the circuit court as provided by KRS 61.880(5) by filing a suit within thirty days. As directed by statute a copy of this opinion is being sent to the requester.