Do you have a question about access to public records, court records or public meetings? TCOG has focused on these issues since 2013 and has developed several resources to help! (Note: We do not provide legal services.)

  1. Help Line – Staffed by our executive director, Deborah Fisher, who has 25 years in the news business and eight years working for TCOG digging deep into open government issues.
  2. FAQs  – This is a great place to start if you have a quick question and want to research it yourself.
  3. Keys to Open Government – This is a booklet produced by TCOG in 2015 with a grant from the Tennessee Press Association. You can view it in PDF and download it. We designed it for the layman. It gives you an overview of the public records and open meetings law and helps you understand key concepts.
  4. Retention schedules – Here is your map to local and state records. Retention schedules are a rich resource to discover the main types of records kept by local and state government and how long these records are required or recommended to be kept. We’ve linked you to key resources on this page.
  5. Making a public records request – The basics you should know.
  6. 10 Practical Tips on Requesting Public Records – More insight based on our experience.
  7. Open meetings complaint – If you’ve got a complaint or concern related to public meeting, start here. We explain some of your options.
  8. Written request form by Office of Open Records Counsel  – This is a link to a form developed by the state’s Office of Open Records Counsel that can be used in making a public records request. You don’t have to use it, but you might find it useful so that you give all the information you need. Some government entities have developed their own form. Some use this form.
  9. Link to Tennessee Code Annotated  (Tennessee Public Records Act is T.C.A. § 10-7-503 through 10-7-506; Tennessee Open Meetings Act is T.C.A. § 8-44-101 through 8-44-11)
  10. Understanding FERPA – Federal law may also hinder educational institutions that get money from the federal government from releasing some student educational records. But it doesn’t exempt everything! Learn more about the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.