New Jersey A 897: Exempts personal identifying information of minor from disclosure in public record; requires information to be redacted.

Bill Text

A897 

ASSEMBLY, No. 897 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

� 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman JOHN V. AZZARITI JR., M.D.

District 39 (Bergen)

SYNOPSIS

���� Exempts personal identifying information of minor 
from disclosure in public record; requires information to be redacted.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT 

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative 
Counsel.

�� 

An Act concerning the disclosure of certain information in 
public records and amending P.L.1995, c.23 and P.L.2001, c.404.

���� Be It 
Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of 
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.� Section 1 of P.L.1995, 
c.23 (C.47:1A-1.1) is amended to read as follows:� 

���� 1.��� As used in P.L.1963, 
c.73 (C.47:1A-1 et seq.) as amended and supplemented:

���� "Biotechnology" 
means any technique that uses living organisms, or parts of living organisms, 
to make or modify products, to improve plants or animals, or to develop 
micro-organisms for specific uses; including the industrial use of recombinant 
DNA, cell fusion, and novel bioprocessing techniques.

���� "Child protective 
investigator in the Division of Child Protection and Permanency" means an 
employee of the Division of Child Protection and Permanency in the Department 
of Children and Families whose primary duty is to investigate reports of child 
abuse and neglect, or any other employee of the Department of Children and 
Families whose duties include investigation, response to, or review of 
allegations of child abuse and neglect.

���� "Constituent" means 
any State resident or other person communicating with a member of the 
Legislature.

���� "Criminal investigatory 
record" means a record which is not required by law to be made, maintained 
or kept on file that is held by a law enforcement agency which pertains to any 
criminal investigation or related civil enforcement proceeding.

���� "Custodian of a 
government record" or "custodian" means in the case of a 
municipality, the municipal clerk and in the case of any other public agency, 
the officer officially designated by formal action of that agency's director or 
governing body, as the case may be.

���� "Government record" 
or "record" means any paper, written or printed book, document, 
drawing, map, plan, photograph, microfilm, data processed or image processed 
document, information stored or maintained electronically or by sound-recording 
or in a similar device, or any copy thereof, that has been made, maintained or 
kept on file in the course of his or its official business by any officer, 
commission, agency or authority of the State or of any political subdivision 
thereof, including subordinate boards thereof, or that has been received in the 
course of his or its official business by any such officer, commission, agency, 
or authority of the State or of any political subdivision thereof, including 
subordinate boards thereof.� The terms shall not include inter-agency or 
intra-agency advisory, consultative, or deliberative material.

���� A government record shall not 
include the following information which is deemed to be confidential for the 
purposes of P.L.1963, c.73 (C.47:1A-1 et seq.) as amended and supplemented:

���� information received by a 
member of the Legislature from a constituent or information held by a member of 
the Legislature concerning a constituent, including, but not limited to, 
information in written form or contained in any e-mail or computer data base, 
or in any telephone record whatsoever, unless it is information the constituent 
is required by law to transmit;

���� any memorandum, 
correspondence, notes, report or other communication prepared by, or for, the 
specific use of a member of the Legislature in the course of the member's 
official duties, except that this provision shall not apply to an otherwise 
publicly-accessible report which is required by law to be submitted to the 
Legislature or its members;

���� any copy, reproduction or 
facsimile of any photograph, negative or print, including instant photographs 
and videotapes of the body, or any portion of the body, of a deceased person, 
taken by or for the medical examiner at the scene of death or in the course of 
a post mortem examination or autopsy made by or caused to be made by the 
medical examiner except:

���� when used in a criminal action 
or proceeding in this State which relates to the death of that person,

���� for the use as a court of this 
State permits, by order after good cause has been shown and after written 
notification of the request for the court order has been served at least five 
days before the order is made upon the county prosecutor for the county in 
which the post mortem examination or autopsy occurred,

���� for use in the field of 
forensic pathology or for use in medical or scientific education or research, 
or

���� for use by any law enforcement 
agency in this State or any other state or fed