Kentucky universities have violated public records law 10 times this year
Kentucky universities have violated or partially violated the state’s open records law 10 times in 2025, data from the attorney general’s office shows.
In total, 14 open records appeals have been filed involving Kentucky’s public universities this year. Attorney General Russell Coleman ruled the University of Kentucky has four violations and four partial violations this year.
The University of Louisville partially violated the law once, and Northern Kentucky University violated the law once.
Coleman’s office found UK in compliance with the law on one appeal and UofL in compliance on three appeals this year.
The Kentucky Open Records and Open Meetings acts protect the public’s right to obtain records maintained by state and local government agencies, including institutions that receive at least 25% of their funds from the government.
That includes public universities, and includes having access to meetings held by and documents used by those groups.
UK did not properly explain reason for delayed records
Three recent appeals involving requests to UK centered around the university’s response time, with the attorney general’s office saying UK did not give a detailed explanation for the delay in providing records, as a result, violating the law.
Under the law, agencies must respond to a request — even if they are asking for an extension to provide the documents — within five business days of receiving the request. They are allowed to ask for an extension in providing the records and must give a “detailed explanation of the cause” for the delay, according to the open records law.
Saying the records were not yet available is “not sufficiently detailed,” Coleman wrote in one open records decision involving a former UK employee’s records request.
“The University’s final response did not provide a detailed explanation for why the Appellant’s request could not be completed within five business days,” Coleman wrote in his open records decision. “Instead, it merely explained that the records must be gathered, evaluated, reviewed and redacted.”
Coleman gave the same reasoning in other responses where the complaint surrounded UK’s response time.
“A response that does not explain why this particular request requires a delay is not sufficiently detailed,” Coleman wrote in multiple decisions surrounding UK’s response time. “Accordingly, the University violated the Act.”
UK had a similar violation at the beginning of 2025.
UK spokesperson Whitney Siddiqi said in fulfilling records requests, in many cases, “it is simply impossible to gather the records, review the records for possible exemptions and then make the necessary redactions within five business days.”
While Coleman said UK improperly responded about delays in records, Siddiqi said, “in none of these decisions was the university found to have wrongfully withheld documents.”
“We have already taken steps to ensure that we comply with this standard of providing more detail as to why there is a delay in a response, while continuing to uphold the university’s legal obligations to withhold exempt documents and redact where redaction is required,” Siddiqi said.
Explaining Kentucky’s appeals process
In Kentucky, any state resident can request a public record, but those requests aren’t always fulfilled in accordance with the law.
When there is a dispute over decisions made relating to open records or open meetings — such as a request being denied or delayed — parties can file an appeal with the attorney general or file a lawsuit.
Typically, an appeal is the first step taken. Appeals can be lengthy, outlining the original open records request and response, along with relevant case law supporting each party’s position. Both parties in an appeal have the chance to respond and provide supporting documentation.
It’s a process that can take months if extensions are granted.
In an analysis of open records and open meetings appeals filed with the attorney general done earlier this year, the Herald-Leader found that Kentucky’s public higher education institutions were found to have violated the law on appeal about 65% of the time from 2012 to 2024.
UofL and UK — the commonwealth’s largest universities — had the most appeals filed related to records, the analysis showed.