I think it’s time to play a game I call, I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours. They want their doctor to decide if your kid’s doctor’s exemption is good enough? Well then I want to see the entire school staff’s medical history, so I know it’s safe. I’ll have my doctor review those records. Quid pro quo, let’s go.
An OPRA request is your right to access certain public records in New Jersey. OPRA provides that "government records shall be readily accessible for inspection, copying, or examination by the citizens of this State, with certain exceptions, for the protection of the public interest.” There are many interesting things you can find out on these requests, like,
correspondences between your Superintendent and BOE to Governor Murphy
e-mails between Board Members and the Superintendent regarding mask policy.
Notes and E-mails between the School Nurse and your Superintendent on the negative effects of the masks in school.
school staff medical records
Its time to start asking questions and getting a response. If you are not getting a response from your Superintendent then you may want to OPRA that question.
Want to find out how you can do this? click here -> OPRA | Completing an On-line OPRA Records Request (state.nj.us). Each district has its own OPRA form, you should be able to find it on the district website. Feel free to ask more questions in the chat feature.
This is not legal advice, just helpful information. As someone who answers OPRA requests as part of my job, just want to offer some advice. If you are asking for emails, specify a time period. If you leave it open ended, they may reject it for being an over burdensome request. There might be hundreds of emails they would have to go through and redact whatever has to be redacted. If you are looking for emails between Governor and Superintendent, along with a time frame, specify the subject matter. You need to be as specific as possible with OPRA requests. These are valid things to ask for, but I’ve seen people saying on your FB page they are asking for scientific studies from the schools regarding mask safety and efficiency. Those are not records that a school would normally keep. OPRA only pertains to records an entity would normally have. So that request would not be able to be used as a “gotcha” type response to the school when they say they have nothing in response.
My district said they don’t have a form you fill out you send your request in an email. What would be an example of a couple things like emails between BOE members and superintendent that I can ask for?
Hi - thanks for this info, we plan on filling out OPRA form and I’m just curious if you think that wording it exactly as you did above (the 4 bullet points) will suffice?
This is not legal advice, just helpful information. As someone who answers OPRA requests as part of my job, just want to offer some advice. If you are asking for emails, specify a time period. If you leave it open ended, they may reject it for being an over burdensome request. There might be hundreds of emails they would have to go through and redact whatever has to be redacted. If you are looking for emails between Governor and Superintendent, along with a time frame, specify the subject matter. You need to be as specific as possible with OPRA requests. These are valid things to ask for, but I’ve seen people saying on your FB page they are asking for scientific studies from the schools regarding mask safety and efficiency. Those are not records that a school would normally keep. OPRA only pertains to records an entity would normally have. So that request would not be able to be used as a “gotcha” type response to the school when they say they have nothing in response.
Never mind, I found it! Do you mind contacting me here to collaborate? JaCaNJ@protonmail.com
Yes!!
What things are you all asking for with your districts? I’m working on mine, but want to make sure it’s correct and clear.
My district said they don’t have a form you fill out you send your request in an email. What would be an example of a couple things like emails between BOE members and superintendent that I can ask for?
Hi - thanks for this info, we plan on filling out OPRA form and I’m just curious if you think that wording it exactly as you did above (the 4 bullet points) will suffice?
This sounds like a great idea!
Each district has its own OPRA form, you should be able to find it on the district website.
Are you referring to the individual town?