Texas Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Texas, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Can a Texas school board or city council make a decision in an emergency meeting called on short notice?
In this 1988 opinion the Attorney General explained that the Texas Open Meetings Act lets a governmental body meet on just two hours' notice only for a genuine emergency, meaning an unforeseen situati…
Can a Texas school district use public money to pay a trustee's lawyer when the trustee is personally sued for an intentional tort?
In this 1988 opinion the Attorney General said it depends, and the call belongs to the school board. A school district may spend public funds to defend a trustee in a private lawsuit, even one allegin…
Can Texas make a public school building a protected historic landmark and stop the district from demolishing it?
In this 1988 opinion the Attorney General gave a fact-dependent answer. The State Antiquities Committee can designate a school building as a state archeological landmark, but doing so, or denying a pe…
If a teacher gets workers' compensation and paid sick leave for the same work injury, can the school district reduce one to offset the other?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a school district cannot use the offset provision in the public-employee workers' compensation law (article 8309h, section 5) to reduce a teacher's sick-leave b…
Were Texas school-district tax rollback elections constitutional under Tax Code sections 26.08 and 26.085?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the school-tax rollback provisions were constitutional because school-district taxing authority was subject to legislative control, and the elections imposed l…
Did a Texas school district have to pay registration fees for a vehicle it leased rather than owned by title?
No. A school district or other listed government body that had the legal right to possess or control a leased vehicle counted as its owner and qualified for the registration-fee exemption if the vehic…
Could a Texas independent school district use electronic funds transfer to deposit employee pay directly into an employee's bank account without express statutory authorization?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that school trustees could adopt electronic funds transfer for employee pay because the Education Code authorized payment but did not prescribe the payment method. …
Did a Texas school district board have to approve the transfer of its territory to another district under the 1987 Education Code?
Sometimes. The Attorney General concluded that the receiving district's board had to approve a section 19.022 transfer, and a transferring district also had to approve if section 19.008 covered it.
Can a Texas school board lease district property for 50 years, and what happens if the lease is later assigned to a board member?
It depends on the facts, but the AG gave clear rules. JM-531 concluded that a school board has authority to lease district property as long as the lease does not impinge on the board's ability to run …
Can a Texas city make a school district apply for a use permit and follow zoning rules to turn a school building into administrative offices?
Yes, within reason. JM-514 concluded a city may require a school district to comply with reasonable zoning ordinances and a specific-use permit process to convert a school facility into an administrat…
What did Parmer County commissioners have to verify before distributing permanent school funds, could a district temporarily reinvest its share, and who determined each district's scholastic population?
JM-355 required commissioners, as trustees, to investigate the proposed permanent improvements and ensure the money would be used for a constitutional purpose within a reasonable time. Temporary reinv…
Did charging excessive photocopy fees for public records itself constitute a criminal offense under the Texas Open Records Act?
No. Excessive copy charges were not, by themselves, the criminal refusal offense in section 10(b). But an excessive fee could be strong evidence of that offense when it functioned as a way to withhold…
Did the Sweeny Hospital District automatically expand when the Sweeny Independent School District expanded its boundaries?
No. JM-245 concluded that the hospital district adopted the school district's boundaries as they existed in 1963, and could not expand without legislative authority and the required voter approval pro…
Could Blinn College lease a football stadium built with student fees to the Brenham Independent School District for football, track, and UIL events?
Yes. JM-139 relied on the junior-college board's determination that the shared use served a junior college purpose under Education Code section 130.003(e)(7).
Could a school district keep hiring an outside CPA as auditor after the CPA's first cousin joined the school board?
The nepotism law applied even if the CPA was an independent contractor. Continued hiring was permissible only if the CPA had been continuously employed or under contract as auditor for the entire two …
Could a Texas school district deposit student-organization activity funds in a credit union instead of its school depository bank?
Yes, for the activity funds described in JM-42. Because no identified statute or administrative rule required those custodial funds to be placed in the school depository, the district could deposit th…
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Attorney general opinions in Texas are written by the Texas Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.