UPDATE: On Oct 10., Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed Senate Bill S2520B, calling it “unworkable” and citing concerns over “arbitrary deadlines” and a lack of allocated funding. Supporters of the legislation expressed disappointment. “Governor Hochul has done nothing to fix this mess, and instead she vetoed the most promising FOIL legislation in years,” Reinvent Albany wrote in a press release, adding, “Saying no to every solution our groups propose is not being a leader, it’s lackadaisical.”
A New York bill passed by both houses of the Legislature seeks to shorten the time state and city agencies have to respond to public records requests — a vital tool relied on by watchdog groups and advocates for kids and families.
The legislation calls for amendments to the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), which entitles the public to access government records. The bill was prompted by complaints from legal and civil rights groups who allege that New York agencies routinely fail to make such information available in a timely manner, with waits sometimes lasting years.
“Unfortunately,’’ the bill’s language reads, “many agencies have effectively decided to refrain from complying with the law by endlessly extending their time to respond to requests, thus making the tool ineffective.’’
Supporters say the tighter deadlines will improve government efficiency and transparency.
“The ability to review documents allows the press and public to hold government agencies accountable, and is essential to a functioning democracy,” Sen. James Skoufis, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement. “New York’s FOIL is an obligation, not a choice.”
The governor has until the end of the year to sign or veto the bill.
Poor response time was one of the issues highlighted in a lawsuit recently filed on behalf of lawyers for detained youth in the state. New York City’s Legal Aid Society also alleged that the Office of Children and Family Services violated public records laws by illegally redacting documents pertaining to safety policies governing its locked facilities. The withheld information included the agency’s protocols for security emergencies.
The lawsuit, filed in August, also claims that the state agency pushed its response time back twice and that it did not provide any explanation for the redactions.
A spokesperson from the child welfare agency declined to comment on pending legislation and referred to its email last month stating that it provides “the highest levels of public transparency while simultaneously focusing on our utmost priority: protecting the health and safety of New York’s Children.”
Jerome Greco, who heads the digital forensics unit at Legal Aid and has worked on the bill’s language, said the amendments are needed to comply with the spirit of the state’s FOIL law, which is “to be more transparent and provide public records in a timely fashion, rather than delaying things for months, years at a time.”
Greco added that ultimately, the youth his firm represents in the justice system are harmed.
“There are agencies that seemingly will just continue to delay a deadline or delay providing records to the point where it’s essentially the same as a denial,” Greco said. “That makes it very hard for us to then obtain those records that would help us better represent our clients.”
Child welfare advocates have also recently sought legal redress regarding public records requests.
“The ability to review documents allows the press and public to hold government agencies accountable, and is essential to a functioning democracy. New York’s FOIL is an obligation, not a choice.”
— New York state Sen. James Skoufis
In September, the Family Justice Law Center sued New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services for failing to provide information about how the agency conducts removals of children from their homes.
After a “substantial delay,’’ the legal group alleged, the agency provided incomplete records detailing how often it separated children and ignored key parts of the request such as the racial breakdown of the families.
‘Seven or eight years’ of delays
Under New York’s current Freedom of Information Law, government agencies must acknowledge a public record request within five business days and approve or deny the request within 20 days. The problem, critics say, is that there is no maximum time frame set for completion of the request.
In its 2025 report, researchers at Reinvent Albany, a nonprofit that advocates for government transparency, noted that 16% of requests filed in New York City in 2024 were still open a year later.
“We know times when requesters have been waiting like seven or eight years for requests,” said Tom Speaker, legislative director of Reinvent Albany.
The proposed amendments set a maximum time frame for state agencies to fulfill these requests, and require them to provide a detailed explanation, signed by each agency’s commissioner, for any extensions or denials. Agencies must make records available within 180 days for requests made before the end of 2026, and the timeline will progressively shorten to 60 days in 2028.
The bill’s language also prohibits agencies from denying records requests based solely on the volume of documents or constraints with staffing. If signed into law, agencies would be compensated for hiring outside help to complete a request, and would need to show the request’s progress on their websites.
In 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul pushed for greater transparency reforms to the state’s Freedom of Information Law. If signed by Hochul by December, the law would take effect next year.
Still, Speaker said he anticipates more debate before a final decision is made.
“A lot of the agencies that will be affected by this bill will, of course, be reluctant to support it, and I think a lot of the pushback against the bill will come from agencies within the New York State government,” he said.
Gladys Carrión, former commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, expressed some doubt about whether the recently passed bill would be an effective remedy without addressing an agency’s ability to get information out quickly.
“As a citizen, you want a transparent government,” said Carrión, who also headed New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services. “But when you’re in government and you have constraints around personnel, how do you allocate resources and the time that it takes to compile the information?”
