Request OOR Records

Are you requesting records from a local government, school district, or state agency but are unsure where or whom to direct your request to? Please click here for a database of Agency Open Records Officers.

Are you requesting records such as birth or death certificates, divorce records, marriage licenses, criminal proceedings, background check, or police report? Please click here for a chart of records most commonly requested.

Are you requesting records from the Office of Open Records, meaning records that were created by Office of Open Records employees such as open records appeal files? The OOR decides appeals of denied requests, maintaining records only related to its operations, and is not a general repository or warehouse for government records.

The OOR will not docket appeals or respond to requests where the OOR has reason to believe that a requester's identity is anonymous or has been misrepresented to the OOR.

Please click one of the following buttons:

The OOR's Open Records officer is:

Janelle Sostar, Open Records Officer
Office of Open Records
333 Market Street, 16th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Email: RTK-OOR@pa.gov
Phone: 717-346-9903
Fax: 717-425-5343

Other important links:

What to expect when you file a request for OOR records

When the OOR receives a request for records, a request tracking number is assigned and the OOR's Open Records Officer reviews the request and prepares a response. Generally speaking, a response will be issued within five business days of the date the request is received. If additional time is required to prepare the response, the OOR may invoke a thirty calendar day extension under the RTKL.

Please see the OOR RTKL Request Policy and the OOR Public Access Policy for additional information about requesting records from the OOR. In addition, the OOR maintains a table showing every RTK request received by the OOR this year to date.

For non-OOR records, click here for a database of AORO contact information.
If you wish to obtain records that only exist in hard copy, or must be provided on an electronic storage device, you may be required to provide a mailing address to the agency. See Section 703.
How do you prefer to be contacted if the agency has questions?
(Provide as much specific detail as possible so the OOR can identify the information.)
Maximum file attachments: 10
Maximum file size: 25MB per attachment
Allowed file types: pdf, doc, docx, rtf, txt, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, jpg, png, gif, bmp, tiff
Allowed Characters: a-z A-Z 0-9 ( ) . , & _ -
Records shall be provided in the medium requested if they exist in that medium; otherwise, they shall be provided in the medium in which they exist. See Section 701. Your request may require payment or prepayment of fees. View the Official RTKL Fee Schedule for more details.

PUBLIC RECORD NOTICE

All filings with the OOR will be public records and subject to public access with limited exception. If you do not want to include personal contact information in a publicly accessible record, please provide alternate contact information in order to receive future correspondence related to this appeal.

Do not include private information such as Social Security Numbers.

** PLEASE NOTE: RETAIN A COPY OF THIS REQUEST FOR YOUR FILES **
** IT IS A REQUIRED DOCUMENT IF YOU WOULD NEED TO FILE AN APPEAL **
** YOU WILL RECEIVE A COPY OF YOUR SUBMISSION VIA EMAIL **

RTK-OOR@pa.gov

Standard Right-to-Know Request Form | PDF and DOCX (updated Feb. 3, 2020)

Janelle Sostar
Open Records Officer
Office of Open Records
333 Market Street, 16th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101

Standard Right-to-Know Request Form | PDF and DOCX (updated Feb. 3, 2020)

717-425-5343

Standard Right-to-Know Request Form | PDF and DOCX (updated Feb. 3, 2020)

Office of Open Records
333 Market Street, 16th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101