Code of Federal Regulations Title 34. Education § 34.5.40 Appeals of adverse determinations

(a) In general. A requester may seek an administrative review of an adverse determination on the FOIA request made by the requester by submitting an appeal of the determination to the Department. Adverse determinations include denials of access to agency records, in whole or in part;  “no agency records” responses;  and adverse fee decisions, including denials of requests for fee waivers, and all aspects of fee assessments.

(b) Appeal requirements. A requester must submit an appeal within 90 calendar days of the date on the adverse determination letter issued by the Department or, where the requester has received no determination, at any time after the due date for such determination. An appeal must be in writing and must include a detailed statement of all legal and factual bases for the appeal. The requester's failure to comply with time limits set forth in this section constitutes exhaustion of the requester's administrative remedies for the purposes of initiating judicial action to compel disclosure.

(c) Determination on appeal.