NYS FOIL Request Form: How to File, Fees, and Denials

To submit a FOIL request in New York State, send a written request that reasonably describes the records you want to the Records Access Officer at the agency that holds them. Any person can file — no residency or citizenship is required.¹ Once the agency receives your request, it has five business days to provide the records, deny the request in writing, or acknowledge the request and give you an estimated completion date.² New York law presumes government records are public unless a specific exemption applies, so the burden is on the agency to justify anything it withholds.

Find the Right Agency and Records Access Officer

FOIL covers every state and local government entity in New York: departments, boards, bureaus, commissions, public authorities, and municipal offices. Each one must designate at least one Records Access Officer (RAO), by name or job title, to coordinate responses to public records requests.³ The RAO’s name and contact information generally appear on the agency’s website under a “FOIL” or “Records Access” page. If you can’t find it, call the agency’s main number and ask.

Send the request to the wrong agency and it goes nowhere. The recipient has no obligation to forward it. If you aren’t sure which agency has the records, the Committee on Open Government at the New York Department of State can point you in the right direction through the contact form at opengovernment.ny.gov.⁴

What to Put in Your Request

There is no single universal FOIL form. Most agencies provide their own template, and the Committee on Open Government publishes sample request letters on its website that work as a reliable starting point.⁵ You can also write the request from scratch. What matters is the content, not the format.

The law requires only that your request “reasonably describe” the records you want.² You do not need to know the exact file name or document title. A description is reasonable if it gives the agency enough information to locate the records without an unreasonable amount of guesswork, and agency staff are required to help you narrow things down if your initial description isn’t specific enough.³

Vague requests are still one of the most common reasons agencies push back. “All emails from Agency X about housing” is technically reasonable, but it may cover thousands of records and invite delays. Adding a date range, the names of specific officials, or a reference to a particular project or case number makes the request far easier to process. A solid request includes:

A description of the records: subject matter, date range, document type, and the names of people or programs involved, with as much specificity as you can manage.
Your preferred format: paper copies, PDFs by email, or another electronic format.
Your contact information: full name, mailing address, and email so the agency can reach you about fees, delays, or clarifications.

You don’t need to explain why you want the records. FOIL does not require a stated purpose, and an agency can’t deny a request based on how you plan to use the information. One exception: if you’re requesting lists of names and addresses, the agency can require you to certify in writing that you won’t use them for solicitation or fundraising.²

A note on format: if an agency can reasonably convert records from one electronic format to another, it must do so at your request, and if electronic retrieval takes less staff time than pulling and copying paper, the agency has to use the electronic method.⁴ Asking for electronic copies also saves you money, because paper photocopies can run up to twenty-five cents per page. If you’re requesting records that contain your own personal information, the agency may ask for a government-issued ID before releasing them.

How to Submit the Request

How you submit depends on the type of agency.

State Agencies

New York State executive agencies are transitioning from the Open FOIL NY portal to a newer system called GovQA. Agencies that have already switched will no longer appear on Open FOIL. For agencies still on the old system, submit through the form at ny.gov/programs/open-foil-ny.⁶ Check both platforms if you’re unsure which one your target agency uses.

New York City Agencies

New York City runs its own portal, OpenRecords, at a860-openrecords.nyc.gov. You’ll need a free NYC account. Nearly all city agencies use the platform to both receive and respond to FOIL requests.⁷

Everyone Else: Email and Mail

For agencies not on either portal, including most towns, villages, school districts, and county offices, email or mail the request directly to the Records Access Officer. If you’re mailing a paper request, use certified mail with return receipt requested and address the envelope specifically to the “Records Access Officer.” Keep a dated copy of everything you send. That documentation becomes important if the agency doesn’t respond and you need to appeal.

What It Will Cost

Paper photocopies of records up to nine by fourteen inches cannot exceed twenty-five cents per page. For records that don’t fit a standard copier, such as oversized documents, audio recordings, or video files, the agency can charge the actual cost of reproduction, limited to specific line items: the hourly salary of the lowest-paid employee with the skills to prepare the copy, the cost of any storage media provided to you, and the cost of an outside service if the agency’s equipment can’t handle the job.⁸

Agencies cannot charge for search time or administrative overhead. They also can’t charge any reproduction fee unless the copying takes more than two hours of employee time. If a request will exceed that threshold, the agency must tell you the estimated cost before proceeding. And if the agency already prepared an identical copy for a previous request within the past six months and still has an electronic version on hand, it cannot charge you again except for the cost of a storage device.⁸

Agencies have discretion to waive fees entirely. The law doesn’t spell out criteria, so there’s no formal public interest or hardship standard, but it doesn’t hurt to ask, especially for small requests or ones with a clear public purpose.⁴

What Happens Next

Within five business days of receiving your written request, the agency has to do one of three things: provide the records, deny the request in writing, or send a written acknowledgment along with an approximate date when it expects to grant or deny access.² That estimated date should fall within twenty business days under normal circumstances.⁹

If the agency needs longer than twenty business days, it must explain in writing why the delay is necessary and give a specific new date that’s reasonable given the scope of the request. An agency cannot deny a request simply because it’s large or because the agency is short-staffed. The law bars those excuses. If the volume is overwhelming, the agency can hire an outside service to handle copying and charge you the cost.²

If a diligent search turns up nothing, the agency must certify either that it isn’t the custodian of those records or that the records could not be found.³

When an Agency Can Withhold Records

FOIL’s default is disclosure. Everything is public unless it falls within a specific exemption under Public Officers Law §87(2), and even then, agencies must release the non-exempt portions of a record rather than withholding the whole document. The exemptions that come up most often cover personal privacy (Social Security numbers, medical information, certain home addresses); law enforcement records where disclosure would interfere with an active investigation, fair-trial rights, a confidential source, or non-routine investigative techniques; trade secrets that would harm a business’s competitive position; internal inter-agency and intra-agency deliberative materials, though statistical data, factual tabulations, staff instructions that affect the public, final policies, and external audits still must be released; records whose release could endanger someone’s safety; IT security information; records that would impair pending contract awards or collective bargaining; and exam questions requested before the test is given.⁸

When an agency denies your request under any of these, it must explain in writing which exemption applies and why. A blanket denial that doesn’t cite a specific statutory basis is improper.

If Your Request Is Denied or Ignored

If the agency denies your request, or simply doesn’t respond, you can appeal. A failure to respond within the required timelines counts as a “constructive denial” and triggers the same appeal rights as an explicit rejection.¹⁰

You have thirty days from the denial (or from the date the response was due but never came) to file a written appeal with the head of the agency or whoever the agency has designated to handle appeals.¹¹ Your appeal should identify the original request, state when it was submitted, describe what was denied, and explain why the denial was wrong. The Committee on Open Government publishes sample appeal letters alongside its sample request letters.⁵

The agency must send a copy of your appeal to the Committee on Open Government as soon as it receives it.⁴ The appeals officer then has ten business days to respond in writing, either providing access or fully explaining the reasons for continued denial.¹⁰ The Committee itself can also issue advisory opinions on FOIL disputes. Those opinions aren’t legally binding, but agencies take them seriously and courts often reference them.

If the appeal is denied, or if the appeals officer doesn’t respond within ten business days (another constructive denial), you’ve exhausted your administrative remedies and can challenge the denial in court through an Article 78 proceeding under New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules.¹⁰ In that proceeding, the agency bears the burden of proving the records fall within a statutory exemption. The court can order disclosure, review withheld records privately to test the exemption claims, and award reasonable attorney’s fees where the agency had no reasonable basis for its denial. Article 78 proceedings are filed in New York State Supreme Court, and the procedural requirements are specific enough that talking to an attorney familiar with open government litigation is worth doing before you file.

1
National Freedom of Information Coalition. New York FOIA Laws
2
New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO 89 – General Provisions Relating to Access to Records; Certain Cases
3
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 21 NYCRR Part 1401
4
Committee on Open Government. Freedom of Information Law
5
Committee on Open Government. Sample Letters
6
New York State. Open FOIL NY
7
NYC OpenRecords. NYC OpenRecords
8
New York State Senate. New York Public Officers Code PBO 87 – Access to Agency Records
9
Committee on Open Government. FOIL-AO-15598
10
Committee on Open Government. Explanation of Time Limits for Response
11
Committee on Open Government. Make a FOIL Request