How to Fill Out OCFS-3909: NY Guardianship Request for Information Form

To fill out OCFS-3909, New York’s Request for Information Guardianship Form, enter the court and case information at the top, list the proposed guardian and every person living in that guardian’s household with their identifying details, provide a 28-year residential history for the guardian and each adult household member, and mail the completed form to the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment in Albany. The form is a background-check request; the Register searches its database and reports its findings to the court handling your guardianship case.¹

What the Form Covers and Who Must Be Listed

Before you start writing, understand who the form is asking about. New York law requires the court to check whether a proposed guardian, or any person eighteen or older living in that guardian’s home, has an indicated child abuse or maltreatment report on file with the Statewide Central Register (SCR) before making an appointment. Section 1706 of the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act directs the court to inquire with the Office of Children and Family Services, which reports back on whether any indicated report or open investigation exists.² Section 81.19(g) of the Mental Hygiene Law applies the same inquiry to guardianships of incapacitated adults.³

So the form collects information on the proposed guardian plus every member of that household. Adult household members get full database checks. Minors in the household are listed for identification but the SCR check runs against the proposed guardian and the adults.

Where to Get the Current Version

The OCFS-3909 is available as a downloadable PDF from the New York Office of Children and Family Services. Many county court clerks and Family Court self-help centers also keep printed copies on hand, and if you are filing in Surrogate’s Court the form is usually included in the guardianship petition packet.⁴ The current version is marked “OCFS-3909 (Rev. 10/2016).” OCFS also publishes a companion instruction sheet with a sample completed form that is worth downloading alongside the blank version.⁵

Court and Case Information at the Top

Enter the name and address of the court handling your guardianship proceeding, along with your docket or file number. The OCFS instructions tell you to “record your Court Docket File # as appropriate.”⁵ If you have not yet received a docket number because you are filing the full petition at once, ask the court clerk how to handle it; some courts assign the number at filing and instruct you to add it before the form is mailed.

Leave the Resource ID and Court Liaison fields blank. Court personnel complete those.⁵

Listing Household Members and the Role Codes

You must list every person living in the proposed guardian’s household, regardless of age. The form uses single-letter codes to identify each person’s role:

G: Guardian. At least one person on the form must carry this code.
M: Maiden name or alias of the guardian, listed on the line directly below the guardian’s entry.
E: Any household member aged eighteen or older.
F: Family member under eighteen.
O: Other household member under eighteen.

List the proposed guardian first. On the very next row, add the guardian’s maiden name or any alias with the code M. If the guardian has no maiden name or alias, write “NONE” on that row rather than leaving it blank; the SCR treats a blank as missing information.¹

For each person, fill in the last name, first name, middle initial, sex, and date of birth in mm/dd/yyyy format. Do not leave out an adult who lives in the home. That means adult children, roommates, a partner who is not co-petitioning, or an elderly parent all get listed with the E code. Missing one makes the check incomplete and the court cannot rely on the results.

The 28-Year Address History

This is the section that most often trips filers up. The form requires a residential history going back 28 years for every individual being cleared, meaning the proposed guardian and all adult household members.⁵

Start with the current address and work backward. For each address, record the street, city, state, zip code, and the month and year you moved in and moved out. Before you sit down with the blank form, pull together old tax returns, lease agreements, utility bills, or credit reports that list previous addresses. Nearly three decades is a lot of ground to cover from memory, and the SCR needs complete entries to run a clean search.

If an adult household member is younger than 28, you do not have to invent history. Their lookback covers every address since birth. But every address since birth must be there, with no gaps between move-out and move-in dates. A missing zip code or an unexplained gap can send the form back for correction.

Where to Mail the Completed Form

Mail the completed OCFS-3909 to:

New York Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment
Attn: Service Center Unit
P.O. Box 4480
Albany, NY 12204-0480⁵

The form goes to OCFS, not to the court clerk, which is a difference from the rest of your petition paperwork.⁶ Some courts will mail it on your behalf after you submit the form with your petition packet, so confirm your court’s procedure before you drop it in the mail yourself. Either way, the SCR check must be done before the court can finalize the appointment, so get the form in as early in the process as you can.

Common Mistakes That Delay the Check

The most frequent problem is an incomplete address history. Gaps, missing zip codes, or missing move-in and move-out dates force the SCR to return the form for correction. Check every entry before you seal the envelope.

Leaving the maiden name or alias row blank is another common error. The field is required; write “NONE” if neither applies. Omitting an adult who lives in the household is just as damaging, because the resulting check will not cover everyone the court needs cleared.

Finally, some filers mail the OCFS-3909 to the court along with everything else. The SCR in Albany runs the database check; the court does not. Unless your court has told you it handles the mailing, you are the one responsible for sending the form to the address above.

What Happens After You Send It

Once the SCR receives your form, it searches its database for indicated reports linked to the proposed guardian and each adult household member, then reports its findings directly to the court. Under Section 1706 of the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act, OCFS must tell the court whether any person on the form is the subject of an indicated report or a report still under investigation, and must follow up with the court once any open investigation closes.²

Processing times for mailed requests from individual petitioners are longer than the online clearances OCFS provides to certain authorized agencies, so plan on a wait. Your guardianship hearing generally cannot move forward until the court has the SCR results.

An indicated report does not automatically disqualify someone from becoming a guardian. Under Section 81.19(g) of the Mental Hygiene Law the court weighs the SCR results alongside other factors including criminal history, sex offender registry checks, and orders of protection when deciding whether the appointment serves the best interests of the person who needs a guardian.³ An older indicated report does not carry the same weight as a recent one, but either will likely prompt additional scrutiny and may call for an explanation at a hearing.

1
New York State Unified Court System. OCFS-3909 Request for Information Guardianship Form
2
New York State Senate. New York Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act 1706
3
New York State Senate. New York Mental Hygiene Law MHY 81.19
4
New York State Unified Court System. Instructions for Petition for Appointment as Guardian of a Person
5
New York State Office of Children and Family Services. OCFS-3909 Instructions With Example Completed Form
6
NYS Kinship Navigator. Enabling New York’s Kinship Caregivers – Custody, Guardianship, Parental Designation – Basic Procedure