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Office of Children & Family Services |
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Under the New York Freedom of Information Law, citizens have a right to inspect many OCFS records not included on our web.
Some information may be downloaded directly from this website. If you do not find the information you seek here, please send a letter, fax or e-mail to:
Records Access Officer
New York State Office of Children and Family Services
52 Washington Street, Room 305 South
Rensselaer, NY 12144
Fax: (518) 486-7550
E-mail: info@ocfs.state.ny.us
Please be as specific as possible when requesting records, so that we may properly identify which records maintained by the department are responsive to your request. Please also include the return address where you want our response sent.
No. We only require that you submit your request in writing, either by mail, facsimile or e-mail.
Your request is given an OCFS FOIL index number, entered into our tracking system and then routed to the region(s) or division(s) within the department where the records you seek reside. This number will appear on all correspondence you receive from OCFS, and will help us to identify your request.
The region or division will then identify and locate the records you have requested. We review them for responsiveness to your request and insure that release of the records complies with the Freedom of Information Law. The materials are photocopied and sections that are determined to be non-releasable are blacked out. Sometimes an answer to a request contains hundreds or thousands of pages, and may take some time to assemble.
The Records Access Officer will mail you an acknowledgment within five days of receipt of your request. In this acknowledgment, we will estimate how long it will take to gather the records you requested. Generally, most requests for records are filled within 30 to 60 days. If you have not received notice of completion of your request within the time estimated in our acknowledgment letter, please feel free to contact us.
Article 6 of the Public Officers Law, Section 87, includes nine conditions for denial of access. Some of the most common requests received by the Office of Children and Family Services that involve exemption from disclosure are:
In accordance with §87(3)(c) of the Public Officers Law, a detailed current list by subject matter of all records in the possession of the agency, whether or not available under this article is available by clicking here
You will be charged 25 cents per page for photocopying. Please make your check payable to New York State Office of Children and Family Services and record the FOIL index number in the memo section of your check.
If you have additional questions, please contact us at:
Records Access Office
New York State Office of Children and Family Services
52 Washington Street, Room 305 South
Rensselaer, NY 12144
Fax: (518) 486-7550
E-mail: info@ocfs.state.ny.us
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New York State Office of Children and Family Services · 52 Washington Street · Rensselaer, New York 12144-2834