Attorney General's Opinion 1980-81 #395

VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. SCHOOLS. OFFICIAL RECORDS ROUTINELY GENERATED ELSEWHERE PURSUANT TO LAW DO NOT ACQUIRE SPECIAL STATUS MERELY BECAUSE DEPOSITED WITH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER IN ORDINARY COURSE OF BUSINESS. BUS DRIVER'S MONTHLY REPORTS HELD BY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT.

February 26, 1981

The Honorable J. Richmond Low, Jr.
Commonwealth's Attorney for King George County

80-81 395

You ask whether the Bus Driver's Monthly Reports (the "Reports") held by the county Superintendent of schools are excluded under §2.1-342 (b) (4) of the Code of Virginia (1950), as amended, from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Ch. 21 of Title 2.1).

Section 2.1-342 (b) (4) excludes memoranda, working papers and correspondence held or requested by the chief executive officer of any political subdivision of the Commonwealth. School boards are political subdivisions, and the superintendents are their chief executive officers.1 The Reports give a daily summary of pupils transported, miles driven, stops made, and gas and oil added. At the end of each month, the daily amounts are totalled, and the Reports transmitted by the transportation supervisor to the superintendent of schools.

The Reports are used for internal administrative purposes, such as the planning of changes in bus routes, and are not routineIy distributed to the school board or any other public body. At the same time, the Reports are prepared and maintained to comply with items 14, 17 and 18 of the Regulations Governing Pupil Transportation and Minimum Standards for School Buses prescribed by the State Board of Education under § 22.1-176(D). The Reports are also used to prepare the annual transportation report to the State Department of Education.

This Office has recently held that materials specially prepared by a superintendent come within the exclusion provided by § 2.1-342(b)(4). The materials at issue in that Opinion originated with the superintendent, however, and reflected the superintendent's special work product. The materials were not official records routinely generated elsewhere pursuant to State regulation, for which the superintendent's office became a depository in the ordinary course of business.

For the exclusion under § 2.1-342 (b) (4) to be applicable, there must be some factor that specially relates an official record to the chief executive officer's requirements for the conduct of his office. Official records specially generated at the chief executive officer's request come within the exclusion. Official records routinely generated elsewhere pursuant to law do not acquire a special character merely because they come to be deposited in the superintendent's office in the ordinary course of business. Accordingly, I find the Reports held by the county superintendent of schools are not excluded under § 2.1-342(b)(4) from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

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Footnotes:

1. See Opinion to the Honorable William F. Watkins, Jr., Commonwealth's Attorney for Prince Edward County, dated June 3, 1977, found in *Report of the Attorney General (1976-1977) at 315*; *Opinion to the Honorable Mary A. Marshall, Member, House of Delegates, dated March 22, 1977, Ibid, at 317*. bee Opinion to the Honorable Virgil H. Goode, Jr., Member, Senate of Virginia, dated August 13, 1979, found in Report of the Attorney General (1979-1980) at 378.