The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - Blanket denial of a parent's request for school records and correspondence about his disabled child violated the Kentucky Open Records Act, the attorney general's office has ruled.

The ruling, issued last week and made public Tuesday, said Fayette County Public Schools improperly made a "generic determination" that all the records requested, regardless of type, could be withheld under the law's exemption for preliminary recommendations and memoranda.

The attorney general also disagreed with the school district's assertion that the parent, Timothy Burcham, had no inherent right to the materials.

The school district's letter to Burcham said his status as a parent did not entitle him to review documents that could not be shown to a third party, such as a newspaper.

Burcham and Fayette County schools are in a dispute about whether his son has received an appropriate education. He asked for all "records, correspondence, reports, memos, e-mails, faxes" related to his son's case.

In denying the request, school officials said release of the material would be an invasion of the boy's privacy. It also cited the exemption for preliminary documents.

In the opinion, Assistant Attorney General James Ringo said the district was obligated to cite which records, if any, qualified for exclusion and why. "A generic determination that entire categories of records are excluded ... does not satisfy the requirement of the act," Ringo wrote.

As for a student's privacy rights, Ringo said a parent's request for information could not be equated with that of a third party, such as the newspaper.

"Where the requester is a student's parent and the records requested relate to that student, generally no privacy interests can reasonably be asserted," Ringo said.