Human Services FOIA Office
FOIA guarantees residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia and representatives of the media access to public records held by public bodies, public officials, and public employees.
Since 1967, the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has provided the public with the right to request access to records from any federal agency. It is often described as the law that keeps “residents in the know” about their government. Federal agencies are required to disclose any information requested under the FOIA, unless it falls under one of nine exemptions that protect interests such as personal privacy, national security, and law enforcement.
Most of the records held by the Virginia Beach Department of Human Services (DHS) fall under the exemption for personal privacy. To better manage the significant volume of requests and to carefully review the personal privacy in place for these records, a DHS FOIA team was created to process them. The DHS FOIA team is unit of the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Division.
DHS uses GovQA to manage, track and report FOIA requests. For questions or concerns, please reach out to the Department's Freedom of Information Office under the Continuous Quality Improvement Office by phone at (757) 385-0642; by email at DHSFOIA@vbgov.com; or by writing to FOIA Office; Continuous Quality Improvement Office, 256 N. Witchduck Rd., Suite 2F, Virginia Beach, VA 23462.
Submit a FOIA Request
Please select the appropriate FOIA request from the options below.
The Rights of Requesters and the Responsibilities of the City of Virginia Beach Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act
The Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), located of the Code of Virginia § 2.2-3700 et seq., guarantees citizens of the Commonwealth and representatives of the media access to public records held by public bodies, public officials, and public employees.
A public record is any writing or recording - regardless of whether it is a paper record, an electronic file, an audio or video recording, or any other format - that is prepared or owned by, or in the possession of a public body or its officers, employees or agents in the transaction of public business. All public records are presumed to be open, and may only be withheld if a specific, statutory exemption applies.
The policy of FOIA states that the purpose of FOIA is to promote an increased awareness by all persons of governmental activities. In furthering this policy, FOIA requires that the law be interpreted liberally, in favor of access, and that any exemption allowing public records to be withheld must be interpreted narrowly.
Your FOIA Rights
- You have the right to request to inspect or receive copies of public records, or both.
- You have the right to request that any charges for the requested records be estimated in advance.
- If you believe that your FOIA rights have been violated, you may file a petition in district or circuit court to compel compliance with FOIA. Alternatively, you may contact the FOIA Council for a nonbinding advisory opinion.
Making a Request for records from the Department of Human Services
- You may request records by U.S. Mail, fax, e-mail, in person, or over the phone. FOIA does not require that your request be in writing, nor do you need to specifically state that you are requesting records under FOIA.
- From a practical perspective, it may be helpful to both you and the person receiving your request to put your request in writing. This allows you to create a record of your request. It also gives us a clear statement of what records you are requesting, so that there is no misunderstanding over a verbal request. However, we cannot refuse to respond to your FOIA request if you elect to not put it in writing.
- Your request must identify the records you are seeking with "reasonable specificity." This is a common-sense standard. It does not refer to or limit the volume or number of records that you are requesting; instead, it requires that you be specific enough so that we can identify and locate the records that you are seeking.
- Your request must ask for existing records or documents. FOIA gives you a right to inspect or copy records; it does not apply to a situation where you are asking general questions about the work of the City nor does it require the City to create a record that does not exist.
- You may choose to receive electronic records in any format used by the City in the regular course of business.
For example, if you are requesting records maintained in an Excel database, you may elect to receive those records electronically, via e-mail or on a computer disk, or to receive a printed copy of those records. - If we have questions about your request, please cooperate with staff's efforts to clarify the type of records that you are seeking, or to attempt to reach a reasonable agreement about a response to a large request. Making a FOIA request is not an adversarial process, but we may need to discuss your request with you to ensure that we understand what records you are seeking.
To request records from the Department of Human Services, you may direct your request to the Department's Freedom of Information Office. You may also contact the Department's Freedom of Information Office under the Continuous Quality Improvement Office by phone at (757) 385-0642; by email at DHSFOIA@VBGov.com; or by writing to FOIA Office; Continuous Quality Improvement Office, 256 N. Witchduck Rd., Suite 2F, Virginia Beach, VA 23462. In addition, the Freedom of Information Advisory Council is available to answer any questions you may have about FOIA. The Council may be contacted by e-mail at foiacouncil@dls.virginia.gov, or by phone at (804) 225-3056 or [toll free] 1-866-448-4100.
The Department's Responsibilities in Responding to Your Request
- The Department must respond to your request within five working days of receiving it. "Day One" is considered the day after your request is received. The five-day period does not include weekends or holidays.
- The reason behind your request for public records from the Department is irrelevant, and you do not have to state why you want the records before we respond to your request.
- FOIA does, however, allow the Department to require you to provide your name and legal address.
- FOIA requires that the Department make one of the following responses to your request within the five-day time period:We provide you with the records that you have requested in their entirety.
- We withhold all of the records that you have requested, because all of the records are subject to a specific statutory exemption. If all of the records are being withheld, we must send you a response in writing. That writing must identify the volume and subject matter of the records being withheld, and state the specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows us to withhold the records.
- We provide some of the records that you have requested, but withhold other records. We cannot withhold an entire record if only a portion of it is subject to an exemption. In that instance, we may redact the portion of the record that may be withheld, and must provide you with the remainder of the record. We must provide you with a written response stating the specific section of the Code of Virginia that allows portions of the requested records to be withheld.
- We inform you in writing that the requested records cannot be found or do not exist (we do not have the records you want). However, if we know that another public body has the requested records, we must include contact information for the other public body in our response to you.
- If it is practically impossible for the Department to respond to your request within the five-day period, we must state this in writing, explaining the conditions that make the response impossible. This will allow us seven additional working days to respond to your request, giving us a total of 12 working days to respond to your request.
- If you make a request for a very large number of records, and we feel that we cannot provide the records to you within 12 working days without disrupting our other organizational responsibilities, we may petition the court for additional time to respond to your request. However, FOIA requires that we make a reasonable effort to reach an agreement with you concerning the production or the records before we go to court to ask for more time.
Costs
- A public body may make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for the requested records. No public body shall impose any extraneous, intermediary, or surplus fees or expenses to recoup the general costs associated with creating or maintaining records or transacting the general business of the public body. Any duplicating fee charged by a public body shall not exceed the actual cost of duplication. All charges for the supplying of requested records shall be estimated in advance at the request of the citizen as set forth in subsection F of § 2.2-3704 of the Code of Virginia.
- You may have to pay for the records that you request from the Department. FOIA allows us to charge for the actual costs of responding to FOIA requests. This would include items like staff time spent searching for the requested records, copying costs, or any other costs directly related to supplying the requested records. It cannot include general overhead costs.
- If we estimate that it will cost more than $200 to respond to your request, we may require you to pay a deposit, not to exceed the amount of the estimate, before proceeding with your request. The five days that we have to respond to your request does not include the time between when we ask for a deposit and when you respond.
You may request that we estimate in advance the charges for supplying the records that you have requested. This will allow you to know about any costs upfront, or give you the opportunity to modify your request in an attempt to lower the estimated costs. - If you owe us money from a previous FOIA request that has remained unpaid for more than 30 days, the Department may require payment of the past-due bill before it will respond to your new FOIA request.
Types of Records
The following is a general description of the types of records held by the Department:
- Personnel records concerning employees and officials of the Department
- Records of contracts which the Department has entered into
- Records of Department projects and records regarding the operations of the Department
If you are unsure whether the Department has the record(s) you seek, please contact the Department's Freedom of Information Office under the Continuous Quality Improvement Office by phone at (757) 385-0642; by email at DHSFOIA@VBGov.com; or by writing to FOIA Office, Continuous Quality Improvement Office, 256 N. Witchduck Rd., Suite 2F, Virginia Beach, VA 23462.
Commonly used exemptions
The Code of Virginia allows any public body to withhold or redact certain records from public disclosure. The City commonly withholds or redacts records subject to the following exemptions:
- Personnel records (§ 2.2-3705.1 (1) of the Code of Virginia)
- Records subject to attorney-client privilege (§ 2.2-3705.1 (2)) or attorney work product (§ 2.2-3705.1 (3))
- Vendor proprietary information (§ 2.2-3705.1 (6))
- Records relating to the negotiation and award of a contract, prior to a contract being awarded (§ 2.2-3705.1 (12))
- Records from criminal investigative files (§ 2.2-3706)
Policy regarding the use of exemptions
The general policy of the Department is to invoke the personnel records exemption in those instances where it applies in order to protect the privacy of employees and officials of the City.
The general policy of the Department is to invoke the contract negotiations exemption whenever it applies in order to protect the Department's bargaining position and negotiating strategy.
Although the list above includes the most commonly used exemptions, the Department reserves the right to use any exemption provided under the Freedom of Information Act.
The Department also will withhold or redact records for which release is prohibited by any applicable provision of federal or state law, including, but not limited to, certain tax records, records that identify a victim of sexual assault, and records of persons receiving certain forms of federally funded public assistance.
Contact the FOIA Team
Looking for the City's FOIA Office?
Visit the City Attorney's Website to submit your inquiry. Please do not submit DHS FOIA requests through the City Attorney's Office.