Was a school-bus company contracting with a North Dakota public school subject to open-records law?

Plain-English summary

A requester alleged that Harlow's School Bus Service violated North Dakota open-records law by not responding. The company provided busing to the Mandan Public School District under a contract at fair market value.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley found no violation because Harlow's was not a public entity. The opinion followed a recent decision involving nearly identical circumstances and concluded that the fair-market service contract did not bring the private company within the open-records statute.

What this means for you

School districts and contractors

The opinion treats this fair-market service arrangement as an ordinary contract with a private entity, not public-entity status for the contractor.

Records requesters

The contractor had no duty under the cited open-records law to answer the request because it was outside the law's public-entity definition.

Common questions

Q: Did contracting with a school district automatically make the company public? A: No. The fair-market-value nature of the service contract controlled the opinion's conclusion.

Q: Did the AG decide whether the school district held responsive records? A: No. The opinion addressed the request directed to Harlow's.

Background and statutory framework

The opinion request arose under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-21.1 and the access rule in N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18. It cited N.D.C.C. §§ 44-04-17.1(10), (13) and North Dakota AG Opinion 2025-O-13 for the public-entity analysis.

Citations and references

• N.D.C.C. § 44-04-21.1
• N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18
• N.D.C.C. §§ 44-04-17.1(10), (13)

Source

• Landing page: https://attorneygeneral.nd.gov/the-north-dakota-attorney-general-issued-a-summary-opinion-to-mandan-public-school-district/
• Original PDF: https://attorneygeneral.nd.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026-O-18.pdf

Original opinion text

STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA

OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL
www.attorneygeneral.nd.gov
(701) 328-2210

Drew H. Wrigley

ATTORNEY GENERAL

OPEN RECORDS AND MEETINGS SUMMARY OPINION
2026-0-18

DATE ISSUED:

August 31, 2026

ISSUED TO:

Mandan Public School District
SUMMARY OPINION 1

S. Paul Jordan requested an opinion from this office under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-21.1 asking whether Harlow's School Bus Service violated N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18 by not responding to an open records request. Harlow's contracts with the Mandan Public School District to provide busing services at fair market value. A recent opinion from this office dealing with nearly identical circumstances concluded that Harlow's was not a public entity because it provides services to the school district at fair market value. 2 Because Harlow's is not a public entity, it is not subject to the open records law. 3 It is therefore my opinion that no violation of the open records law occurred in this instance.

Drew H. Wrigley
Attorney General
srh
cc:

1

S. PaulJordan

This Summary Opinion is issued pursuant to the authority granted to this office in N.D.C.C. § 44-04-21.1 (1 ). 2 N.D.A.G. 2025-0-13; see also N.D.C.C. §§ 44-04-17.1(10), (13). 3 N.D.A.G. 2025-0-13.