Figure 1 · Where the seven business days go
Day 1 → Day 7
Illustrative. The statutory window stays the same. What changes is how much of it is left for custodial judgment.
The friction you already know
The request lands at 4:10 PM on a Thursday:
Figure 2 · Anatomy of one "simple" request
"All contracts, invoices, and email correspondence regarding Vendor X, plus any meeting minutes, board packets, or zoning resolutions referencing Project Y, for the last three years."
- Two clocks in one phrase. Contracts and invoices from the last 24 months are immediate-access; older ones are not.
- Possibly overbroad. No senders, recipients, or keywords named, so it may need a clarification letter.
- Three names, one vendor. Vendor X appears under three different names in the finance system.
- Maybe already public. Minutes, packets, and resolutions are often posted in BoardDocs or on the municipal site.
- Ambiguous range. Calendar years, fiscal school years, or three years back from today?
- Five departments, one email. Every item still has to be routed and chased.
Before a custodian can evaluate a single document, someone in your office has to do the following:
- Decode It: Does "the last three years" mean three calendar years, three fiscal school years, or three years back from today? Vendor X turns up under three different names in your finance system.
- Split It: One raw request becomes separate internal tasks—whether that means routing items across Accounts Payable, IT, and the Superintendent's office in a school district, or across Finance, Zoning, and Public Works in a municipality.
- Clock It: Recent contracts and invoices are immediate-access records; anything more than 24 months old isn't. A commercial requester moves the whole request to 14 business days. Add weekends and state holidays, and one request is running several clocks at once.
- Hunt for What's Already Public: Searching board packets, council minutes, resolutions, ordinances, and posted archives (whether in BoardDocs or on a municipal site) to see how much of the request is already public.
- Flag It: Personal information that has to come out, student records, security-sensitive building details, investigatory material, or a search broad enough to need a clarification letter.
- Chase It: Forwarding emails to each department, then following up on each one, repeatedly.
None of that is custodianship. It's administrative overhead, and it lands on the people who run the district's finances or manage municipal operations.
Engineered in K-12. Built for all New Jersey public records.
We spent eight years building administrative systems for a large New Jersey school district, including the software its office used to manage OPRA requests.
But an unstructured, multi-part OPRA request doesn't care whether it lands on a Board Secretary's desk, a Municipal Clerk's desk, or a County Records Officer.
The statutory 7-business-day clock is identical. The immediate-access rules are identical. The intake work is identical: splitting a narrative email across departments, working out which items qualify for immediate access and which don't, and finding what's already posted.
OPRA Triage handles a complex school vendor search, a municipal zoning request, or a county inquiry with the exact same depth, speed, and statutory care.
What OPRA Triage does the moment a request arrives
From day one, OPRA Triage works only from the incoming request and your published public records. There is no access to your internal systems and nothing to install.
What OPRA Triage Does the Moment a Request Arrives
Breaks It Down
Splits the request into clean line items, each with its specific records, names, and date range.
Finds What's Already Public
Checks each item against your posted minutes, resolutions, ordinances, and board packets, linking directly to the exact page.
Routes the Rest
Sends each unposted item to the specific department or office that holds it.
Sets Every Deadline
Calculates a precise deadline for each item, accounting for immediate-access rules, commercial status, weekends, and state holidays, so nothing runs on memory or sticky notes.
Raises Flags
Marks personal information, student records, security-sensitive records, investigatory material, and overbroad requests that need clarification.
Drafts Paperwork
Prepares the acknowledgment letter and any clarification notice.
Your custodian opens a sorted, organized request instead of a raw email.
Your custodian opens a sorted, organized request instead of a raw email.
15-second demo
Watch one request get triaged
GIF · 0:15
What it does when you're ready for more
We don't ask for full system access upfront. You choose which internal record stores to connect and when, one at a time, using secure, read-only connections. With each connection, OPRA Triage takes on more of the retrieval:
- Retrieves Records: Pulls unposted files directly from your connected stores instead of just pointing to them.
- Assembles Review Sets: Packages responsive files item by item, with proposed redactions marked for review.
- Tracks Across Departments: Follows every open item across departments, so no one has to chase reminders by hand.
- Maintains Audit Trails: Keeps a complete log of what was requested, retrieved, reviewed, and approved for release.
Your custodian opens a prepared package, ready for final review.
What doesn't change
- Your Authority: OPRA Triage never replies to a requester. Every release decision, redaction, and response is approved by your custodian.
- Your Accountability: Every item traces back to its source, and every deadline is visible.
OPRA Triage removes the administrative labor. Final review and release decisions stay with your custodian.
Send us your hardest recent request
We're opening OPRA Triage to a select group of New Jersey records custodians—across school districts, municipalities, and county administrations. Pick an OPRA request that ate real staff hours in your office, and we'll show you the exact triage package OPRA Triage prepares for it.
Try it on your own request
Paste a request. Get it back structured.