FN-023·Field Note
Your State's Open Meetings Law, in One Line
Fifty states and DC: which open meetings law is yours, and which section of it governs notice. Checked one row at a time, with the misses written down.
Published 2026.09.07Updated 2026.09.07MethodSend a correction
In this file
The board watch kit asks you to look up five things in your state's open meetings law: how far ahead notice goes up, whether the agenda itself has to post, whether items have to be specific, what happens to an item that was never listed, and whether a recording is required.
To answer any of them you first have to find the law. It is called the Open Meetings Act in sixteen states and DC, an Open Meeting or Open Meetings Law in fourteen, the Sunshine Law or Act in six, the Freedom of Information Act in five, and the Open Door Law in Indiana. Some states appear in two of those groups, because the popular name and the statutory name differ.
This page is that lookup. It gives you the law, the section that governs notice, and a link to the text.
What this page does not do
It does not tell you how many hours of notice your state requires. Those rules branch by the kind of body and the kind of meeting, and a single number in a table is how you get it wrong. Alabama alone runs seven calendar days, twenty-four hours, and a one-hour floor, all inside the one section linked below. The one-hour floor covers an emergency and also a meeting held solely to accept a resignation. Open the section.
The table
Where the code prints a title for the section, it is in the last column. Three states do not print one: California, Illinois and Maryland run straight from the section number into the text. Colorado's cell is blank for a different reason, which is that its link goes to a summary rather than to the code, so I never saw the section as published.
| State | The law | Notice section, linked to the text | The section's own title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Alabama Open Meetings Act (Title 36, ch. 25A, §36-25A-1 to -11) | Ala. Code § 36-25A-3 | Notice Requirements |
| Alaska | Open Meetings Act (short title stated at AS 44.62.319) | Alaska Stat. § 44.62.310(e) | Government meetings public |
| Arizona | Open Meeting Law | A.R.S. § 38-431.02 | Notice of meetings |
| Arkansas | Arkansas Freedom of Information Act | Ark. Code § 25-19-106 | Public meetings — Requirements, exceptions, and penalties |
| California | Ralph M. Brown Act | Cal. Gov't Code § 54954.2 | |
| Colorado | Open Meetings Law, part of the Colorado Sunshine Law | Colo. Rev. Stat. § 24-6-402 | |
| Connecticut | Freedom of Information Act | Conn. Gen. Stat. § 1-225 | Meetings of government agencies to be public. Recording of votes. Schedule and agenda of certain meetings to be filed |
| Delaware | Freedom of Information Act | 29 Del. C. § 10004 | Open meetings |
| District of Columbia | Open Meetings Act of 2010 | D.C. Code § 2-576 | Notice of meetings |
| Florida | Sunshine Law | Fla. Stat. § 286.011 | Public meetings and records; public inspection; criminal and civil penalties |
| Georgia | Georgia Open Meetings Act | O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1(d) | Meetings to be open to the public |
| Hawaii | Sunshine Law (HRS ch. 92, pt. I) | Haw. Rev. Stat. § 92-7 | Notice |
| Idaho | Idaho Open Meeting Law | Idaho Code § 74-204 | Notice of meetings - agendas |
| Illinois | Open Meetings Act | 5 ILCS 120/2.02 | |
| Indiana | Open Door Law (IC 5-14-1.5, 'Public Meetings') | Ind. Code § 5-14-1.5-5 | Public notice of meetings |
| Iowa | Iowa Open Meetings Act | Iowa Code § 21.4 | Public notice |
| Kansas | Kansas Open Meetings Act | K.S.A. § 75-4318 | Meetings of state and subdivisions open to public; exceptions; secret ballots; notice; agenda |
| Kentucky | Open Meetings Act (KRS 61.805-61.850) | Ky. Rev. Stat. § 61.823 | Special meetings — Emergency meetings |
| Louisiana | Open Meetings Law (La. R.S. 42:11-42:28) | La. Rev. Stat. § 42:19 | Notice of meetings |
| Maine | Freedom of Access Act | 1 M.R.S. § 406 | Public notice |
| Maryland | Open Meetings Act | Md. Code, Gen. Prov. § 3-302 | |
| Massachusetts | Open Meeting Law | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 30A, § 20 | Meetings of a public body to be open to the public; notice of meeting; remote participation; recording and transmission of meeting; removal of persons for disruption of proceedings; office holders to certify receipt of open meeting law and educational materials |
| Michigan | Open Meetings Act | Mich. Comp. Laws § 15.265 | Public notice of regular meetings, change in schedule of regular meetings, rescheduled regular meetings, or special meetings |
| Minnesota | Open Meeting Law | Minn. Stat. § 13D.04 | NOTICE OF MEETINGS |
| Mississippi | Mississippi Open Meetings Act (Title 25, ch. 41) | Miss. Code § 25-41-13 | Notice |
| Missouri | Sunshine Law | Mo. Rev. Stat. § 610.020 | Notice of meetings, when required - recording of meetings to be allowed, guidelines, penalty - accessibility of meetings |
| Montana | Open Meeting Law | Mont. Code Ann. § 2-3-103 | Public participation — governor to ensure guidelines adopted — procedures for publishing notice |
| Nebraska | Open Meetings Act | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 84-1411 | Meetings of public body; notice; method; contents; when available; right to modify; duties concerning notice; virtual conferencing authorized; requirements; emergency meeting without notice; appearance before public body; applicability of section |
| Nevada | Open Meeting Law | Nev. Rev. Stat. § 241.020 | Meetings to be open and public; size of facilities; limitations on closure of meetings; notice of meetings; copy of materials; exceptions |
| New Hampshire | Right-to-Know Law | N.H. Rev. Stat. § 91-A:2 | Meetings Open to Public |
| New Jersey | Senator Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act (short title at N.J.S.A. 10:4-6) | N.J. Stat. § 10:4-9 | Meeting of public body; adequate notice to public; necessity; exceptions |
| New Mexico | Open Meetings Act | N.M. Stat. § 10-15-1 | (section text not read) |
| New York | Open Meetings Law (Public Officers Law art. 7) | N.Y. Pub. Off. Law § 104 | Public notice |
| North Carolina | Open Meetings Law | N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-318.12 | Public notice of official meetings |
| North Dakota | Open Meetings Law | N.D. Cent. Code § 44-04-20 | Notice of public meetings required - Exceptions - Schedule set by statute, ordinance, or resolution |
| Ohio | Open Meetings Act (R.C. 121.22) | Ohio Rev. Code § 121.22(F) | Public meetings - exceptions |
| Oklahoma | Oklahoma Open Meeting Act | 25 O.S. § 311 | Public bodies - Notice |
| Oregon | Oregon Public Meetings Law | Or. Rev. Stat. § 192.640 | Public notice required; special notice for executive sessions or special or emergency meetings |
| Pennsylvania | Sunshine Act | 65 Pa. C.S. § 709 | Public notice |
| Rhode Island | Open Meetings Act | R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-46-6 | Notice |
| South Carolina | Freedom of Information Act | S.C. Code § 30-4-80 | Notice of meetings of public bodies |
| South Dakota | Open Meetings Law (SDCL ch. 1-25) | S.D. Codified Laws § 1-25-1.1 | Notice of meeting of political subdivision—Agenda—Violation as misdemeanor |
| Tennessee | Tennessee Open Meetings Act / Sunshine Law (T.C.A. § 8-44-101 et seq.) | Tenn. Code § 8-44-103 | Adequate public notice |
| Texas | Open Meetings Act (Gov't Code ch. 551, heading 'Open Meetings') | Tex. Gov't Code § 551.043 | Time and accessibility of notice; posting of budget; general rule |
| Utah | Open and Public Meetings Act | Utah Code § 52-4-202 | Public notice of meetings — Emergency meetings |
| Vermont | Vermont Open Meeting Law | 1 V.S.A. § 312 | Right to attend meetings of public bodies |
| Virginia | Virginia Freedom of Information Act | Va. Code § 2.2-3707 | Meetings to be public; notice of meetings; recordings; minutes |
| Washington | Open Public Meetings Act of 1971 | Rev. Code Wash. § 42.30.077 | Agendas of regular meetings - Online availability |
| West Virginia | Open Governmental Proceedings Act | W. Va. Code § 6-9A-3 | Proceedings to be open; public notice of meetings |
| Wisconsin | Wisconsin Open Meetings Law | Wis. Stat. § 19.84 | Public notice |
| Wyoming | Wyoming Public Meetings Act (Title 16, ch. 4, art. 4) | Wyo. Stat. § 16-4-404 | Types of meetings; notice; recess |
How this was checked
Two methods, not one.
Thirty-two rows were checked by script. The rule was that the section number had to appear in the text the state's own site served, with statutory language around it rather than navigation. That rule exists because a weaker version failed: checking only whether the section number was present passed California, where 54954.2 also sits in the page's breadcrumb. The statute was on that page, but the check had matched the furniture and would have passed a page where it was not. It now scores every occurrence by the legal language following it.
Nineteen rows could not be checked that way and were read by hand, in a browser or in a state agency's reproduction of the statute. Nine sites returned 403 to a script while working normally for a person, Wyoming's among them. Alaska, South Dakota and Texas serve a frame or a JavaScript shell containing no statute at all. Kentucky is in this group for a plainer reason: it answers a .aspx URL with a PDF, which read fine once I stopped expecting HTML.
Where the link is not the code. Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Wyoming publish their statutes only through a commercial publisher's portal. For those the link goes to a state source that quotes the law, or to the state's own portal. Georgia's Attorney General PDF carries a 2012 stamp. Wyoming's text was read from a 2015 compilation that the state does not itself host, so that row links the Legislature's portal instead and you will have to navigate.
Two more links are not the code either. Colorado's goes to a legislative-staff summary, which is why its title cell is empty; its URL path contains "2017" but the PDF's own metadata says 2020, so this page does not date it. Indiana's row was verified against a state PDF of the 2022 code, and its link goes to the current official viewer, which renders the chapter but 404s on any dated path.
Two rows whose statute I did not read. Colorado, above, and New Mexico. New Mexico's citation is the state's own but comes from a different page than the one linked here: the Department of Justice's emergency-meeting-reporting page writes that "the Open Meetings Act, NMSA 1978, Section 10-15-1(F) requires that New Mexico Public Bodies notify the Attorney General" of emergency meetings. Subsection (F) is the emergency-reporting provision, not the notice provision, and New Mexico's own materials do not agree on which subsection carries notice, so the table cites the bare section.
One correction worth naming. An earlier version of this table carried notice periods taken from a well-regarded secondary source. In the three states I checked by hand against the code, it was wrong three times: it gave Alabama's one-hour floor as the ordinary rule when the code says seven calendar days, it produced a figure for Washington where the Open Public Meetings Act sets no notice period for a regular meeting at all, and it reported Connecticut's annual schedule-filing deadline as if it were a per-meeting requirement. That is why there are no numbers in the table.
And one correction that arrived after this page was drafted. Arkansas was written up here as having no posting period for regular meetings. That was true of the edition of the Attorney General's handbook I read, and false of the law: Acts 2025, Act 179 rewrote the section effective August 5, 2025, and a regular meeting now takes three days' notice. The catchline changed too.
Nine rows here rest on a state agency's reproduction of the code rather than on the code, and each carries that same risk of going quietly out of date. If a row matters to you, check the date on whatever you land on.
Where a period is set by someone other than the legislature
Of the nineteen rows read by hand, five do not carry a fixed statutory period, and they split into two kinds.
In Ohio, Wyoming and New Mexico the body sets its own. Ohio has each public body establish a reasonable method by rule; Wyoming leaves regular meetings to whatever the body adopts by ordinance, resolution, bylaws or rule; New Mexico has each body decide in public what notice is reasonable for itself. In those states the answer to "was that enough notice" is a document you can ask your board for.
In Tennessee and Alaska the standard is set above the board. Tennessee requires "adequate public notice" and the meaning comes from the courts, in Memphis Publishing Co. v. City of Memphis, 513 S.W.2d 511 (Tenn. 1974). Alaska requires notice that is reasonable. Asking those boards for their own notice rule will not settle it.
The other thirty-three rows were not assessed for this, so treat five as a floor, not a count. Colorado is among the unassessed even though it was read by hand, because what I read was a summary.
Sources
Most rows link the document they were checked against. Five do not, and the paragraphs above name them: Wyoming, Indiana, Colorado, New Mexico and Arkansas. Four more link a page that carries the statute but not its printed title, so the last column came from a second source in the same state: Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas.
Section titles are quoted from the served page, with one exception: this site renders a double hyphen as an em dash, so titles the codes print with -- appear here with a dash.
The five questions and the meeting sheet are in Watch Your Board. Bring Friends.