OAG 93-003.

• Case Date: January 27, 1993
• Court: Kentucky

Kentucky Attorney General Opinions 1993. OAG 93-003. January 27, 1993OAG 93-3Mr. Clinton R. RileyKentucky Intercollegiate Press Association117 Donovan AnnexEastern Kentucky University Richmond, Kentucky 40475 Dear Mr. Riley: You have requested an opinion from the Attorney General on an issue relating to the Kentucky Open Records Act. Specifically, you ask that this Office overrule OAG 90-24, in which we held that the records of the Murray State University Office of Public Safety are "education records" within the meaning of 20 U.S.C. 1232g(b)(1), the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy SAct of 1974, also known as the Buckley Amendment, and that those records were properly withheld from public inspection. In addition, you ask that we adopt the reasoning of the Missouri federal district court in Bauer v. Kincaid, 759 F.Supp. 575 (W.D.Mo.1991). In Bauer, the court held that the Buckley Amendment did not prohibit the release of criminal investigation and incident reports prepared by the Southwest Missouri State University Safety and Security Department. You note that "[d]espite the current ruling by [this] Office that the records fall under the protection of the Buckley Amendment, some universities release the records while others do not." Continuing, you express the belief that in light of the Bauer decision, "a new opinion should be issued making police records at all state universities and colleges open records." While we are not persuaded by the court's reasoning in Bauer v. Kincaid, supra, we find that recent changes in the federal law mandate a different rule than that announced in OAG 90-24. Accordingly, that opinion is overruled to the extent that it is inconsistent with the discussion which follows. The Buckley Amendment, which applies to all schools which receive funds under an applicable program from the United States Department of Education, was enacted by Congress in 1974 to protect a student's or a student's family's interest in the privacy and accuracy of education records about the student. The Amendment gives parents and eligible students, meaning students who have reached the age of eighteen or who are attending any school beyond the high school level, the right to inspect all of the student's education records maintained by the school, and the right to request that a school correct records believed...