NY State Senate Bill 2019-S5781

Senate Bill S5781

2019-2020 Legislative Session

Exempts certain ministerial communications of school districts from the freedom of information law

download bill text pdf

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Investigations And Government Operations Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

Please enter your contact information

First Name

Last Name

Email Address

A valid email address is required.

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.

Actions

View Actions

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 08, 2020	referred to investigations and government operations
May 14, 2019	referred to investigations and government operations

2019-S5781 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Investigations And Government Operations
Law Section:: Public Officers Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §87, Pub Off L
Versions Introduced in 2021-2022 Legislative Session:: S2169

2019-S5781 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Exempts certain ministerial communications of school districts from the freedom of information law.

2019-S5781 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S5781

SPONSOR: MAY
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the public officers law, in relation
to exempting certain ministerial communications of school districts from
the freedom of information law

 
PURPOSE:

This legislation exempts certain routine school district records (such
as daily attendance lists) from freedom of information law (FOIL)
requests if the redaction of such records would impose a heavy or unnec-
essary burden on districts.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1: Amends subdivision 2 of section 87 of the Public Officers Law
to exempt administrative records routinely and regularly compiled by
school districts from FOIL requests if the redaction of such communi-
cations would burden the school districts.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) provides citizens with an impor-
tant and necessary tool for ensuring governmental transparency. By
making FOIL requests, New Yorkers learn more about the operation of
their government and ensure its smooth operation.  Certain kinds of
requests can impose substantial burdens on agencies with little or no
compelling reason. One burdensome request is the processing of standard
school records. Under current law, requests can be made for all
instances of a student's name appearing in school records. This can
yield many important records, but it can also yield the many instances
of a student's name that appear in routinely generated records where the
student's name appears as one of dozens or hundreds of names (such as
daily attendance lists and other kinds of rosters). The ease of elec-
tronic record-keeping means that school districts may have to redact
thousands of names in processing FOIL requests that include these kinds
of routine records. This bill exempts routine records from FOIL requests
when complying with said request would impose an undue or unnecessary
burden on school districts.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the state.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
30 days after enactment.

2019-S5781 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   5781
 
                        2019-2020 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                               May 14, 2019
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  MAY  --  read  twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern-
   ment Operations
 
 AN ACT to amend the  public  officers  law,  in  relation  to  exempting
   certain  ministerial communications of school districts from the free-
   dom of information law

   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1.  Subdivision 2 of section 87 of the public officers law is
 amended by adding a new paragraph (q) to read as follows:
   (Q) WITH RESPECT TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS ONLY, ARE COMPILED REGULARLY  AND
 ROUTINELY TO COMMUNICATE MINISTERIAL MATTERS OF ADMINISTRATION AND WHERE
 THE  REDACTION  OF SUCH COMMUNICATIONS WOULD PLACE AN UNNECESSARY BURDEN
 OR UNDUE HARDSHIP ON SUCH SCHOOL DISTRICT.
   § 2. This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day  after  it  shall
 have become a law.
 
 
 
 
 
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD10772-02-9

Comments

Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.

Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.