Brookdale Community College

Receipt acknowledged. In light of the pandemic, closing of our College facilities and following the CDC and NJDOH guidelines together with applicable NJ OPRA statute, an extension to review and process your OPRA request is warranted and extended to April 19, 2020. Thank you.

Bonnie Passarella, J.D.
Executive Associate, Legal Services
Brookdale Community College
765 Newman Springs Road
BAC #229
Lincroft, NJ 07738
p: 732.224.2239 | f: 732.224.2895
bpassarella@brookdalecc.edu<http://www.brookdalecc.edu/>
www.brookdalecc.edu<http://www.brookdalecc.edu/>

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email, including any attachments, may contain confidential, proprietary and privileged information. Any unauthorized use or disclosure is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please promptly notify me and delete this email from your system.

Our MISSION: Brookdale Community College empowers a diverse community by providing open access to high-quality and cost-effective educational and lifelong learning options with clear paths to personal, educational, and economic success.

Thank you for following up. As you may be aware, due to the Governor-declared State of Emergency, the OPRA rules have been relaxed. As Brookdale's Public Records Custodian, I am required to make reasonable efforts to respond to an OPRA Request within seven (7) business days or as soon as possible thereafter during the declared State of Emergency. N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5 (i) by P.L. 2020, C.10. You were timely notified of an extension of time within which to respond to your March 10, 2020 OPRA Request via extension to April 19, 2020, however, other College priorities took precedence.

This email serves as a written response to your March 10, 2020 OPRA Request which is granted in part and denied in part. For ease of reference you had requested the following records from Brookdale Community College:

1. Any annual, quarterly or semesterly logs or reports that detail how often various school therapy services are provided to students. Please provide logs from the academic year

beginning in 2014 through the present.

2. Any reports, logs, or other data that tracks average wait times for students who have sought help for mental health issues. Please provide logs from the academic year beginning

in 2014 through the present.

3. The budget for mental health services for each year beginning in 2014 through the present.

4. Any reports, logs, or other data that tracks the number of mental-health related accommodations requested each school year, as well as the outcomes of those accommodation requests. Please provide records beginning in 2014 through the present.

5. Any and all policies related to mental health, including but not limited to policies governing leaves of absence (voluntary and involuntary) for students, as well as any logs or reports that note the voluntary and involuntary leaves of absences students have taken each year since 2014.

Attached is the responsive record to #3.

As to the requested information for items 1, 2, 4 and 5, please note that OPRA operates to make identifiable government records "readily accessible for inspection, copying, or examination." N.J.S.A. § 47:1A-1; MAG Entertainment, LLC v. Div. of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534, 546 (App. Div. 2005). MAG Entertainment, LLC held, "[w]hile OPRA provides an alternative means of access to government documents not otherwise exempted from its reach, it is not intended as a research tool litigants may use to force government officials to identify and siphon useful information." Id. at 547. "Under OPRA, agencies are required to disclose only 'identifiable' government records not otherwise exempt. Wholesale requests for general information to be analyzed, collated and compiled by the responding government entity are not encompassed therein." Id. at 549; see also Bent v. Stafford Police Dep't, 381 N.J. Super. 30, 37 (App. Div. 2005) (holding that OPRA only allows requests for records as contrasted from information, and to qualify under OPRA a request must reasonably identify a record and not generally data, information or statistics). The Appellate Division repeated these principles in holding:

[A]gencies are only obligated to disclose identifiable government records. The statute "only allows requests for records, not requests for information." A proper request "must identify with reasonable clarity those documents that are desired." "Wholesale requests for general information to be analyzed, collated and compiled" by the agency are outside OPRA's scope.

Burke v. Brandes, 429 N.J. Super. 169, 174 (App. Div. 2012) (citations omitted); see also Lagerkvist v. Office of Governor of State, 443 N.J. Super. 230, 237 (App. Div. 2015) (holding that OPRA does not convert a custodian into a researcher, which would have been the effect of the request). In light of the case law, your purported request for items outlined in 1, 2, 4 and 5 constitutes a request for information that is outside of the scope of OPRA.

Based on the foregoing, the College has marked the OPRA Request as "completed" and has closed the file. Thank you for your attention in our College.

Bonnie Passarella, J.D.
Executive Associate, Legal Services
Government Records Custodian
Brookdale Community College
765 Newman Springs Road
BAC #229
Lincroft, NJ 07738
p: 732.224.2239 | f: 732.224.2895
bpassarella@brookdalecc.edu<http://www.brookdalecc.edu/>
www.brookdalecc.edu<http://www.brookdalecc.edu/>

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email, including any attachments, may contain confidential, proprietary and privileged information. Any unauthorized use or disclosure is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please promptly notify me and delete this email from your system.

Our MISSION: Brookdale Community College empowers a diverse community by providing open access to high-quality and cost-effective educational and lifelong learning options with clear paths to personal, educational, and economic success.