Pursuant to the Kansas Open Records Act (K.S.A. 45-215 et seq.) it is DCF policy to provide access to public records and, unless otherwise prohibited, all public records may be inspected and copied by any person.
Public records include manual provisions, contracts, and Secretary's Letters. Information concerning or identifying specific individuals are not public. Personnel records, social service case information, treatment records are examples of records which contain personal information about individuals and are not, therefore, public. Communications to or from agency attorneys are not public records.
A request for records must be responded to by DCF staff within three days indicating, if the records are not produced, the cause of any delay and the earliest date when the records shall be available.
It is permissible to require individuals seeking access to schedule a convenient time for review. Anyone inspecting a public record shall, upon request and payment of an authorized fee, be provided a copy. The DCF fee policy is set out at K.A.R. 30-2-12. However, the office need not provide the copies immediately upon demand, but as soon as possible without disrupting flow of essential operations.