Texas’ Supreme Court has ruled that school board members don’t have to go through the Texas Education Agency to force school districts to release records, but can go straight to court.
While most legal disputes concerning the education system require exhausting remedies through the TEA, the Court concluded that Texas Education Code 11.1512 offers a statutory exception.
It has now been clarified that when a school district blows its deadline to turn over documents that trustees are entitled to see, those trustees can go straight to court instead of being dragged through TEA’s slow, delay‑ridden process.
Background
Robert and Amy Marshall were board members for Webb Consolidated Independent School District when they requested information from the district regarding agenda items for an upcoming board meeting in May 2020.
The following month, the Marshalls sued the district for injunctive relief and attorney’s fees, alleging it had failed to turn over the information.
In September 2020, the trial court agreed and issued the injunction, ordering the district to produce the documents. The Marshalls would later amend their petition to seek additional relief regarding the district’s alleged failure to comply with multiple other requests for documents and information.
Meanwhile, the Marshalls were also pursuing a separate administrative proceeding against the district with the TEA. This stemmed from the board’s vote to censure them at a September 2019 board meeting.
The Marshalls allegedly requested documents supporting their censure on multiple occasions that the district failed to provide.
In May 2021, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath dismissed that claim for a lack of jurisdiction. Rather than appealing this decision through the administrative process, the Marshalls added the claim to their pending lawsuit.
Webb CISD argued the suit should be dismissed because the Marshalls were no longer school board members, all responsive documents that it maintained had been provided, and the Marshalls had failed to exhaust their administrative remedies.
The district contended the Marshalls should have appealed through the TEA before filing suit under Education Code 11.1512—the statute that guarantees board members access to district information and authorizes injunctive relief and attorney’s fees when administrators refuse.
The trial court disagreed, again ordering Webb CISD to release the relevant documents. Webb CISD appealed.
The Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio affirmed the trial court order.
The appellate court also concluded that because Robert and Amy Marshall were not school board members anymore, they no longer had a right to the requested information. However, since the Marshalls had prevailed in obtaining the injunction, the court decided the Marshalls’ claim for attorney’s fees remained live.
Ruling
Webb CISD again appealed, this time to the Supreme Court of Texas, which released its decision on April 24.
Importantly, the Court held that the Marshalls did not need to exhaust their administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit for injunctive relief.
In the context of disputes that arise within the education system, parties are generally required to exhaust their administrative remedies before filing suit. Yet the administrative-exhaustion requirement is subject to certain statutory exceptions.
“We agree with the court of appeals that Section 11.1512 creates such an exception,” wrote Justice Debra Lehrmann in the opinion of the Court. “[The section] straightforwardly provides that a school-board member ‘may bring suit’ when the school district has missed its deadline to turn over information.”
The ruling made clear that trustees don’t have to beg the education bureaucracy for permission before going to court to force their district to turn over information they are entitled to see.
Because the Court concluded that the Marshalls “prevailed” only as to the documents covered by the 2020 injunction, they may only recover attorney’s fees related to that relief.
The case has been remanded to the trial court for a determination on attorney’s fees.
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