On June 16, 2026, LION (Local Integrity Oversight Network) filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General’s Open Records Division after Sherman Independent School District did not respond to a public-records request within the time the law allows.
The Texas Public Information Act (Texas Government Code, Chapter 552) gives the public the right to obtain records held by governmental bodies, including school districts. A governmental body that receives a request must promptly produce the records. If it cannot produce them within ten business days, it must certify in writing a date and time when they will be available (Section 552.221). If it intends to withhold any record, it must ask the Attorney General for a decision within ten business days of receiving the request (Section 552.301). A body that does none of these has not met the Act’s deadline.
LION filed its request with Sherman ISD on May 29, 2026, asking for a current export of the district’s library catalog for every campus and the district’s 2025–26 approved reading lists, in the electronic format the district’s library system already produces. As of June 12, 2026 — the tenth business day after the request — the district had produced no records, certified no date for production, and requested no decision from the Attorney General.
With the deadline passed and no response received, LION filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Open Records Division on June 16, 2026 (Open Records file no. OR-26-032096-IC), asking the office to direct the district to release the records. It is LION’s position that the requested catalog and reading lists are public information presumed open under Texas Government Code Section 552.302, which provides that a governmental body’s failure to timely seek an Attorney General decision creates a presumption that the requested information is public.
Sources: LION’s Public Information Act request to Sherman ISD, May 29, 2026 (LION reference SHERMANISD-PIA-001); Texas Government Code, Chapter 552, Sections 552.221, 552.301, and 552.302.
Errors or corrections: corrections@lionwatchtx.org
