How to Fill Out and Submit the PA Right-to-Know Request Form

The Pennsylvania Right-to-Know request form is a one-page fillable PDF published by the Office of Open Records at openrecords.pa.gov. You use it to ask any state or local Commonwealth agency for copies of public records, and every agency must accept it even if that agency also offers its own version.¹ Once the agency’s open records officer receives your completed form, a five-business-day response clock starts.²

Any legal resident of the United States can file. You do not have to live in Pennsylvania, and you never have to explain why you want the records. The statute is explicit that a written request “need not include any explanation of the requester’s reason for requesting or intended use of the records unless otherwise required by law.”² If someone at the agency asks, you can decline to answer.³

Filling Out the Form

The form is short, but a careless submission is the fastest route to a denial or a delay. Work through it in four parts.

Your Name and Contact Information

Enter your full legal name and mailing address. Both are required by statute, which says a written request “shall include the name and address to which the agency should address its response.”² If the records exist only in hard copy, or need to be sent on a disc or flash drive, that is the address the agency will use.⁴ A phone number and email are optional but give the open records officer a way to reach you quickly if something needs clarifying.

Description of the Records

This is where most requests are won or lost. The law requires you to “identify or describe the records sought with sufficient specificity to enable the agency to ascertain which records are being requested.”² A specific description usually pins down three things:

A date range. Write “invoices from January 2024 through December 2024,” not “recent invoices.”
Names or identifiers. The specific vendor, employee, contract number, or property address the records relate to.
The document type. Emails, meeting minutes, contracts, inspection reports.

“All documents about the highway project” invites a denial on specificity grounds. “The signed contract and all change orders between PennDOT and XYZ Construction for Project No. 12345, dated 2023–2025” forces the agency to search.

Preferred Delivery Format

The form lets you choose how you want the records. If they already exist in that format, the agency must provide them that way.² Email delivery is usually the fastest and cheapest option because the official fee schedule charges no additional fee for records sent by email.⁵ You can also ask to inspect the records in person at the agency’s office during regular business hours, which avoids duplication fees entirely.

Attestation Checkbox

Check the box at the bottom that affirms your identity and U.S. legal residency. The form itself warns that leaving it unchecked “may result in the denial of my request and the dismissal of any appeal.”⁴ It is easy to miss on a PDF you are filling out quickly.

Where and How to Send It

Send your completed form to the agency’s designated open records officer. Every Pennsylvania public agency must appoint one.⁶ The Office of Open Records keeps a searchable directory at openrecords.pa.gov listing each officer’s name, email, fax number, and mailing address.⁷

You can submit by mail, fax, email, or in person during regular business hours.² Email is usually the most practical because it creates a timestamp proving when the agency received your request, and the five-business-day clock starts on that date. If you fax, keep the transmission confirmation. If you mail, use certified mail. If you drop it off in person, ask staff to date-stamp a copy and keep that copy.

Getting the form to the right person matters. If it lands on a random employee’s desk instead of the open records officer’s, agency employees are required to forward it, but the response clock does not start until the open records officer actually receives it.²

What the Agency Owes You Back

The agency has five business days from the date its open records officer receives your request to respond.⁸ That response will be one of three things: full access to the records, a partial release with redactions and an explanation, or a full denial citing a specific legal exemption.

If the agency says nothing within those five business days, your request is automatically “deemed denied” and you can appeal immediately.⁸ Silence is not a stalling option for the agency.

When the Agency Can Take Longer

Within the first five business days, the agency can send you a written notice claiming up to 30 additional calendar days. The notice must give a specific reason. The law recognizes only seven:²

Records need redaction before release.
Records are stored off-site and must be retrieved.
A documented staffing shortage.
Legal review is needed to determine whether an exemption applies.
You have not followed the agency’s access policies.
You have refused to pay applicable duplication fees.
The request is broad enough that it cannot be handled within five days.

If the agency’s expected response date is more than 30 calendar days out, the request is deemed denied unless you agree in writing to a longer extension.⁹

Fees You May Owe

Pennsylvania caps what agencies can charge under the official fee schedule:⁵

Black-and-white copies, first 1,000 pages: up to $0.25 per page.
Black-and-white copies, beyond 1,000: up to $0.20 per page.
Color copies: up to $0.50 per page.
CD or DVD: actual cost, up to $1.00 per disc.
Certified copies: up to $5.00 per record.
Email delivery: no additional fee.
Redaction: no additional fee.
Postage: actual USPS first-class cost.

A “copy” is one side of one sheet of standard letter or legal paper. If a record exists only electronically, the agency must charge the lesser of the paper duplication fee or the fee for duplicating it in its original electronic format, unless you specifically ask for the more expensive option.⁵ Fees are discretionary, and an agency can waive them.

What Agencies Are Allowed to Withhold

The law starts from the presumption that all records are public, and the agency has the burden of proving otherwise. Section 708 lists categories that can legally be withheld. Requesting records that clearly fall into one of these is the quickest way to get denied. The most commonly invoked categories are personal identifiers such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers, home addresses, and personal financial information; medical and psychological records; records whose release would create a substantial risk of physical harm or expose infrastructure vulnerabilities; law enforcement, intelligence, and homeland security records; and records whose release would cost the agency federal or state funding.²

When a document contains both public and exempt information, the agency is supposed to redact the exempt portions and release the rest, not deny the whole thing.

If You Are Denied

You have 15 business days from the date of the denial letter, or from the date of a deemed denial, to file an appeal with the Office of Open Records.¹⁰ Appeals are free.³ The OOR’s online appeal form asks for your contact information, the agency’s information, a description of the records, and copies of your original request, every response the agency sent, and any extension notices. That is why keeping your submission timestamp and all agency correspondence matters from day one. The appeal itself becomes a public record, so the form warns against including Social Security numbers and lets you supply alternate contact information if you do not want your home address in a publicly accessible filing.¹¹

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 65 P.S. 67.505 – Uniform Form
2
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law
3
Office of Open Records. About the Right-to-Know Law
4
Pennsylvania Office of Open Records. Standard Right-to-Know Law Request Form
5
Office of Open Records. Official RTKL Fee Schedule
6
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 65 P.S. 67.502 – Open-Records Officer
7
Office of Open Records. Find Agency Open Records Officers
8
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 65 P.S. 67.901 – General Rule
9
Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. Legal Hotline – RTKL 30 Day Extension
10
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code 65 P.S. 67.1101 – Authorization
11
Office of Open Records. File an Appeal