Texas Public Information Act: the 10-business-day clock and AG rulings

Last reviewed: August 2026. General information for practitioners, not legal advice.

Ten business days is not a production deadline

Ask around any Texas city hall, school district, or state agency and you will hear the same rule of thumb: public records are due in ten business days. The Public Information Act says no such thing. The production standard in Government Code Section 552.221(a) is a single word — promptly — which the statute defines as "as soon as possible under the circumstances, that is, within a reasonable time, without delay." A three-page council agenda packet that takes ten business days to release is late. A 40,000-email litigation-adjacent request that takes ninety days, with the requestor kept informed, can be perfectly compliant.

The ten-business-day mark does different work. Under the Act as it stands in 2026, day ten is the deadline for a written disposition decision, not for production:

• If you cannot produce within ten business days, Section 552.221(d) requires you to certify that fact to the requestor in writing and set a date and hour, within a reasonable time, when the information will be available.
• If you want to withhold anything, Section 552.301(b) requires you to ask the attorney general for a ruling and state the exceptions you claim — within a reasonable time, but not later than the tenth business day after receiving the request. This is the real "10-day rule," and it is a drop-dead date.
• If no responsive information exists, Section 552.221(f) — added by HB 4219, effective September 1, 2025 — requires a written notice to the requestor by the tenth business day.
• If you are withholding under a previous determination, Section 552.221(g), also new in 2025, requires a written notice by the tenth business day that identifies the specific previous determination you are relying on.

The misunderstanding cuts both ways, and both ways hurt. Offices that treat day ten as the due date sit on records that could have gone out on day two — a promptness violation, and since 2025 a complaint-able one. Offices that think they have "ten days to respond" sometimes discover on day twelve that the window to claim exceptions has closed and the records are presumed public. Every request now needs one of five written outcomes within ten business days: release, a Section 552.221(d) certification, a no-records notice, a previous-determination notice, or a ruling request to the attorney general.

Counting business days

Since September 1, 2023, "business day" is a defined term. Section 552.0031 (added by HB 3033) excludes Saturdays and Sundays, national holidays, and state holidays; an optional holiday counts as a non-business day if your officer for public information actually observes it, and a Friday or Monday counts as a non-business day when the body observes a weekend holiday on that day. A governmental body may also designate up to ten days per calendar year on which its administrative offices are closed or running on a skeleton crew as non-business days — designated by the board of trustees for school districts and by the executive director or chief administrative officer elsewhere. One thing the statute is blunt about: an employee working remotely does not make the day a non-business day. Keep the designated-day list documented; deadline disputes with requestors frequently come down to whose calendar is right.

The attorney general ruling process

Texas is unusual among the states: a governmental body cannot simply decide to withhold. Unless the information falls under a previous determination, withholding requires a ruling from the attorney general's Open Records Division, and the request for that ruling runs on two statutory clocks.

The 10-day letter

Not later than the tenth business day after receiving the request, the body must ask the attorney general for a decision and state which exceptions apply (Section 552.301(b)). Within the same ten business days it must tell the requestor, in writing, that it wishes to withhold and has asked for a ruling, and give the requestor a copy of its communication to the attorney general (Section 552.301(d)). Practitioners call this the 10-day letter. Raising the exception is what preserves it — exceptions not claimed here are generally gone.

The 15-day package

Not later than the fifteenth business day, the body must submit its written comments explaining why each claimed exception applies, a copy of the request, a signed statement or evidence establishing the date of receipt, and a copy or representative sample of the information at issue, labeled to show which exception covers which part (Section 552.301(e)). A copy of the comments also goes to the requestor, redacted as needed (Section 552.301(e-1)). The brief matters: the attorney general rules on the arguments in front of it, and a bare list of section numbers usually loses.

Miss the deadline, lose the exception

Section 552.302 is the enforcement teeth. If the body does not timely request a ruling and copy the requestor as Sections 552.301(d) and (e-1) require, the information is presumed public and must be released unless there is a compelling reason to withhold it. The compelling-reason standard is narrow: as the attorney general's decisions apply it, essentially information made confidential by other law, or information implicating third-party interests. Discretionary exceptions — litigation, deliberative process, competition — do not survive a blown deadline.

What the attorney general does with it

The Open Records Division must issue its written ruling not later than the 45th business day after receiving the ruling request, and may extend once by ten business days if it notifies the body and the requestor of the reason (Section 552.306). The ruling goes to both sides and is published as an open records letter ruling. Add the ten- and fifteen-day submission windows and a contested request runs roughly three calendar months end to end — which is worth explaining to requestors up front, because from their side the file looks dormant.

After the ruling

A ruling that information is public leaves the body two options: comply, or sue the attorney general in Travis County district court not later than the 30th calendar day after receiving the decision — if it does neither, it must comply (Section 552.324). A requestor, or the attorney general, can seek a writ of mandamus against a body that refuses to request a ruling or refuses to release information a ruling has held public (Section 552.321).

Previous determinations

If the attorney general has already ruled that a category of information is confidential for your body — or issued a previous determination applicable to all governmental bodies, such as for certain categories under Section 552.101 — you may withhold without asking again. Since September 1, 2025, that shortcut carries a notice duty: the Section 552.221(g) letter, within ten business days, identifying the specific previous determination relied on. Cite the ruling number; a vague "this is covered by prior rulings" invites a complaint.

Third parties: the Section 552.305 notice

When a request implicates someone else's proprietary or privacy interests — a vendor's pricing, trade secrets, personnel privacy — the body is not required to argue the third party's case. Instead, Section 552.305(d) requires a good-faith attempt to notify the affected person, not later than the tenth business day after the body receives the request, enclosing a copy of the request and a statement that the person may submit reasons to the attorney general for withholding. The third party then has ten business days after receiving the notice to make its case directly to the attorney general. Calendar both deadlines: the body's failure to send the notice can sink an otherwise valid confidentiality claim, and a third party that stays silent is usually deemed to have no protected interest.

Clarification requests stop the clock — if made in good faith

Section 552.222 permits exactly two kinds of questions to a requestor: what do you mean, and can we narrow this — never why do you want it. The clock consequences come from case law: in City of Dallas v. Abbott, 304 S.W.3d 380 (Tex. 2010), the Texas Supreme Court held that when a governmental body asks in good faith for clarification or narrowing of an unclear or overbroad request, the ten-business-day period to request an attorney general ruling is measured from the date the request is clarified. The statute adds a withdrawal rule: if the requestor has not responded in writing by the 61st day after a written clarification request, the underlying request is considered withdrawn — but only if your clarification letter stated that consequence, which Section 552.222 requires. Good faith is the load-bearing phrase. A clarification letter sent on day nine about a request that was plain on its face buys nothing except a waiver argument for the requestor.

What you can charge — and the traps

Charges are set by attorney general rule (Sections 552.261–552.262; 1 Tex. Admin. Code § 70.3): ten cents per standard page, $15 per hour for labor — generally chargeable on paper-copy requests only when the request exceeds 50 pages — and overhead at 20 percent of the labor charge. Around that fee schedule sit four procedural rules that all carry clock or forfeiture consequences:

• The $40 itemized estimate (Section 552.2615). If estimated charges exceed $40, the body must send a written, itemized statement. The requestor has ten business days to respond in writing — accept, modify the request, or complain to the attorney general about the amount — or the request is considered withdrawn. If actual costs will run 20 percent or more over the estimate, an updated statement is required; without one, the body cannot collect more than 20 percent above the original figure.
• Deposits and bonds (Section 552.263). For estimated charges over $100 (bodies with more than 15 full-time employees) or over $50 (15 or fewer), the body may require a deposit or bond — and the request is not considered received, and no deadlines run, until the deposit or bond is posted. Unpaid balances over $100 from a requestor's earlier requests can also be collected first, if documented.
• The personnel-time cap (Section 552.275). A body may adopt a limit on uncompensated staff time per requestor: not less than 36 hours per 12-month period, or not less than 15 hours per month. Once a requestor crosses the limit, further requests trigger a written estimate of the full cost — materials, personnel time, and overhead — on or before the tenth day, and the request is withdrawn if the requestor does not agree in writing to pay. The cap cannot be applied to news media, elected officials, or representatives of publicly funded 501(c)(3) legal services organizations.
• Overcharges (Section 552.269). Requestors may complain to the attorney general about excessive charges, and a body that did not compute costs in good faith is liable for three times the overcharge. Keep the worksheets.

Catastrophes: the Section 552.2325 suspension

A body whose operations are genuinely knocked out — fire, flood, hurricane, epidemic, infrastructure failure, civil disturbance — may suspend PIA requirements by submitting a catastrophe notice to the attorney general on the prescribed form and posting public notice. The initial suspension runs up to seven consecutive days, extendable once for up to seven more, with a hard cap of 14 consecutive calendar days per catastrophe; the attorney general posts every notice on its website for a year. Since a 2021 amendment, the definition expressly excludes periods when staff are working remotely and can reach responsive information electronically — a closed building with a functioning network is not a catastrophe. (Note the section number: 552.2325. Neighboring Section 552.233 is the 2019 ownership-of-public-information provision, and the two are often confused in training materials.)

The criminal backstop

Three offenses sit at the end of the Act, and all are personal — they attach to people, not budgets:

• Destruction, removal, or alteration (Section 552.351). Wilfully destroying, mutilating, removing without permission, or altering public information: a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $25 to $4,000, confinement of three days to three months, or both.
• Distribution or misuse of confidential information (Section 552.352). Distributing information the Act makes confidential, or misusing it: a misdemeanor punishable by up to $1,000, up to six months in county jail, or both — and it constitutes official misconduct.
• Failure or refusal to provide access (Section 552.353). An officer for public information who, with criminal negligence, fails or refuses to give access to or copies of public information commits a misdemeanor — up to $1,000, up to six months, or both, and official misconduct. The statute supplies affirmative defenses that map exactly onto doing the process right: reasonable reliance on a court order or written attorney general interpretation, a ruling request pending before the attorney general, or a timely-filed declaratory judgment action.

Prosecutions are rare. The defenses are the practical point: an officer who runs the Subchapter G process on time is insulated; an officer who withholds informally is not.

Where requestors escalate

Since September 1, 2025, a requestor who gets no timely Section 552.221 action can file a written complaint directly with the attorney general under new Section 552.328. If the attorney general finds noncompliance without good cause, the consequences are concrete: the public information officer must complete open records training within six months, the body is barred from charging that requestor for the request, and the body must seek any ruling within five business days and otherwise release the information absent a compelling reason. Separately, Section 552.3215 routes complaints to the county or district attorney, who must determine within 31 days whether a violation occurred and notify the complainant; if the local prosecutor declines — or 90 days pass without action — the complainant may take the complaint to the attorney general, and declaratory or injunctive relief is available after a short cure window. Cost complaints go to the attorney general under Section 552.269, and mandamus under Section 552.321 remains the courtroom remedy. For everything short of a complaint, the attorney general staffs an Open Government Hotline at (512) 478-6736 or toll-free (877) 673-6839.

Training is mandatory — and cheap insurance

Section 552.012 requires each elected or appointed member of a governmental body, each single-officer agency head, and each officer for public information to complete an attorney general–approved open records course of one to two hours within 90 days of taking office or assuming duties. An official may designate a public information coordinator to take the training instead, where that person actually administers the official's PIA duties day to day — the designation satisfies the training requirement but transfers none of the legal responsibility. The attorney general's free video courses satisfy the requirement, and completion certificates are exactly the kind of record a Section 552.328 complaint will ask about.

Sources

• Texas Government Code, Chapter 552 (Public Information Act), current through the 89th Legislature (2025) — statutes.capitol.texas.gov (accessed August 2026)
• Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Public Information Act Handbook, 2026 edition — texasattorneygeneral.gov (PDF)
• Office of the Attorney General of Texas, 2025 Texas Legislative Session Update — texasattorneygeneral.gov
• HB 4219, 89th Legislature, R.S. (2025), enrolled text, effective September 1, 2025 — capitol.texas.gov
• HB 3033, 88th Legislature, R.S. (2023), enrolled text, effective September 1, 2023 — capitol.texas.gov
• 1 Tex. Admin. Code § 70.3 (attorney general cost rules for copies of public information)
• City of Dallas v. Abbott, 304 S.W.3d 380 (Tex. 2010) — opinion text
• Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Open Government Hotline and PIA training resources — texasattorneygeneral.gov/open-government

Running the clocks without a spreadsheet

Everything above is, operationally, a set of overlapping timers: promptly, ten business days, fifteen, sixty-one, forty-five, thirty calendar days — several of which pause for deposits and clarifications and restart on receipt. AccessPoint ships a Texas Public Information Act jurisdiction pack that preloads these deadlines, exceptions, and notice templates into its request management workflow, running entirely inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant. If you are weighing platforms, see how it compares with GovQA and FOIAXpress — or book a demo and watch a Texas request run end to end on your own rules.

Last reviewed: August 2026.