Enrolled Bill Summary

House Bill 628	House Author:  Dale et al.
Effective:  9-1-13	Senate Sponsor:  Paxton

            House Bill 628 amends the Education Code to establish that a member of a school district's board of trustees, when acting in the member's official capacity, has an inherent right to access information, documents, and records maintained by the district. The bill requires a district to provide such materials to the board member without the need for a public information request and without regard to whether the requested items are the subject of or relate to an agenda item for an upcoming meeting but authorizes the district to withhold or redact the material requested by a board member to the extent that the item is excepted from disclosure or is confidential under law. The bill requires a district to publicly post the cost of responding to one or more requests submitted by a board member if the requests are for 200 or more pages of material in a 90-day period and to report annually to the Texas Education Agency on the number of
member-submitted requests and the total cost of responding to those requests.