§ 14A.053.Grievance System Decision; Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies

The exhaustion provision, and the grievance system it refers to is of a different kind.

The individual shall file an affidavit or declaration stating the date the grievance was filed and the date the written decision was received, together with a copy of the written decision.

The system is one "established by the office or a facility under contract with the office", where the inmate chapter points to a grievance system the Government Code requires and defines.

That difference matters for a litigant. A statutory system has its steps and deadlines fixed by law; a system an agency or a contractor establishes is defined by the policies of that agency or contractor.

The qualifier "if any" in the certification requirement acknowledges the point — the preceding section asks the individual to certify that all applicable grievance processes, if any, have been exhausted.

The 31-day rule is identical and equally unforgiving: a court shall dismiss a claim filed later than the 31st day after the individual receives the written decision.

The mandatory dismissal is what makes the receipt date the critical fact, which is why the affidavit must state it.

A claim filed before the procedure is complete is stayed for up to 180 days rather than dismissed.

The asymmetry gives the same practical advice as in the inmate chapter. Filing early costs delay; filing late costs the claim.

Here the advice carries an extra edge, because the individual must also certify exhaustion in the disclosure affidavit — and a certification made before the process is complete is a false one.