STATUS OF NEW JERSEY NOTARY PUBLIC EDUCATION
A PUBLIC SERVICE REPORT TO THE PUBLIC

The Bottom Line:

The manual tells you what the law says. It never tells you how to follow it.
 

It has sample certificates but no instruction on when to use them or how to fill them out.

It is a reference document, not an education. And 26 pages cannot replace six hours of training.

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View Critical Gap Analysis

A 56 Page Report​
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The OPRA Request

"No Records Exist"

Frustrated by months of silence, the New Jersey Notary Association submitted a formal request under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) on February 17, 2026 (Request No. W248812). We asked for basic records any functioning program should maintain:

• Approval standards: How are education courses evaluated?

• Review procedures: Who reviews courses, and how?

• Communications: What discussions have occurred with providers?

• Approved provider list: Who is authorized to offer courses?

• Vendor contracts: Does any outside vendor assist with reviews?

On February 26, 2026, the official response arrived from Jacquelyn McCarty, Manager of the Government Records Access Unit. It stated, in its entirety:

"The Department of Revenue and Enterprise Services (DORES) does not have any specific records related to the review, evaluation, approval, denial, and oversight of New Jersey Notary Public education courses."

No records.
None.
 

No approval standards. No review procedures. No communications. No provider list. No vendor contracts. Nothing.
 

More than four years after the law's passage, the state has no records of any education program administration whatsoever.

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Second OPRA Request

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We refined our request, seeking records specifically related to the state's obligations to approve independent vendors and maintain a public list.

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The response, dated March 5, 2026, stated:

*"Pursuant to NJSA 52:7-10.2(e), the Department of the Treasury has opted to provide notary public continuing education courses directly rather than through independent vendors. As a result, no records exist relating to an application or certification process for independent vendors."*
 

This response confirms that the state never created any process for approving independent vendors. When we applied for approval, there was no system to receive our application. Having chosen to be the sole provider, the state then produced 45 minutes of video.

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View State OPRA Responses

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Third OPRA Response: Denied on Procedural Grounds

Received: April 6, 2026

The State responded. It did not say "no records exist."

It said: any records that do exist are exempt from disclosure.
 

The Response in Full

On April 6, 2026, the Department of Treasury, Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services (DORES), denied OPRA Request W249781 in its entirety. The denial letter cited two grounds:
 

First: That our request was "improper" under N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(g) because it did not (1) identify specific employees to search, (2) list a specific subject matter (it did), and (3) limit the request to a reasonable time period. The letter also claimed that fulfilling the request would require DORES to "conduct research, compile data, and create a new record."

Second: That any responsive records, if they exist, are exempt from disclosure under the "inter-agency or intra-agency advisory, consultative or deliberative material" exemption (N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1).

The request was denied. The file was closed.
 

What DORES Did Not Say

The denial letter is notable for what it omits:

• No claim that records do not exist. DORES never stated "we searched and found nothing." They went straight to exemption.

• No privilege log. The "deliberative material" exemption requires an agency to identify each withheld record and explain why it qualifies. DORES provided nothing of the kind.

• No description of any search. We do not know what custodians were searched, what date ranges were used, or whether any search occurred at all.

• No invitation to clarify or narrow. DORES never contacted us to ask for employee names or search terms. They simply denied.

Why the Denial Does Not Hold Up

On the "improper request" argument:

N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5(g) gives agencies discretion to deny requests that are genuinely impossible to fulfill without unreasonable burden. It is not a license to ignore requests entirely.

Our request identified specific subject matter (Category 1: creation of notary education videos; Category 2: decision to exclude independent vendors). The timeframe was implicit: the videos were published after the 2021 law took effect. DORES never asked us to name specific employees or date ranges—they simply refused to engage.

The Government Records Council (GRC) has repeatedly held that agencies must cooperate with requesters in good faith. Silence followed by a blanket denial is not good faith.

On the "creating new records" argument:

We asked for existing records: emails, memoranda, contracts, invoices, meeting minutes, legal analyses. OPRA explicitly requires agencies to produce existing records. It does not require them to answer questions or write reports. DORES mischaracterized our request to avoid searching.

On the "deliberative material" exemption:

This exemption protects pre‑decisional, advisory communications—internal deliberations before a final decision is made. It does not protect:

• Final decisions or policies

• Purely factual information

• Contracts, invoices, or vendor communications

• Records that are more than five years old (the exemption has a temporal limit)

• Communications that implement a decision already made

More importantly: the exemption requires a privilege log. Without a log identifying each withheld record and explaining why it is deliberative, the agency's claim is procedurally defective. The GRC has consistently required privilege logs for blanket exemption claims to be upheld.
DORES provided no log. None.

 

What DORES Is Likely Hiding

We cannot know for certain what records exist. But the denial letter's own language offers clues.

The letter states that DORES "opted to provide notary public continuing education courses directly rather than through independent vendors." That decision—who made it, when, based on what analysis—is precisely what we requested. If the decision was made, there are records of it. Emails. Meeting minutes. Legal memos. A directive from the Treasurer's office.
 

DORES claims these records are "deliberative." But a final decision to exclude all independent vendors is not deliberative—it is final agency action. The public has a right to know how that decision was made and on what legal basis.
 

Similarly, the videos did not appear by magic. Someone planned them. Someone approved the 45‑minute runtime instead of the six hours the public was promised. Someone decided not to assess their educational effectiveness. Those records—contracts, emails, internal memoranda—are not protected deliberations. They are records of what the government did.

 

The Pattern Continues

This is the third OPRA request. The first yielded nothing: "no records exist." The second revealed that DORES had opted to be the sole provider—a decision made with no public input and no published reasoning. The third is now denied under a procedural exemption that DORES has not properly invoked.

The State is not saying "we have nothing to hide."

It is saying "we will not show you."

 

Our Response

The New Jersey Notary Association will file a complaint with the Government Records Council (GRC) challenging this denial. The GRC has the authority to:

• Order DORES to produce a privilege log identifying each withheld record

• Review those records in camera (privately) to determine whether the exemption properly applies

• Order disclosure of any records that are not legitimately exempt

• Award attorney's fees and costs if the denial was unreasonable

We will pursue this complaint to conclusion. Transparency is not optional. The public was promised six hours of education. The State provided 45 minutes of video. The public has a right to know why.

 

What You Can Do

For the public: Read this report. Share it. Ask your county clerk and your legislators why New Jersey's notary education system has no records, no approved vendors, and no accountability.

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For legislators: Request these same records directly. A legislative inquiry is not subject to OPRA exemptions. Ask DORES: Did you provide a privilege log? If not, why not? If the records are deliberative, what decision were they deliberating toward—and was that decision ever made final?

 

For Treasurer Binder: You inherited this system. You did not create it. But you now have the opportunity to fix it. Waive the deliberative exemption voluntarily. Release the records. Let the public see what happened. That is not weakness—that is leadership.

Missing Annual Reports

The law explicitly requires the Treasurer to publish an annual report on the state of notary education by September 30 each year (N.J.S. § 52:7-10.2(i)). The report must include:

• A summary of commissioning activity

• An assessment of whether educational content needs updating

• Timelines for delivering new content

As of March 1, 2026, no report for 2025 has been published. To our knowledge, no annual report for 2025 has ever been issued.

The OPRA response explains why: there are no records because there is no program to assess.

 

A Proven Solution

The "Garden State Notary" Curriculum

Confronted with the state's inaction, the New Jersey Notary Association created the resource that should have existed all along.

"Garden State Notary: A Complete Guide for New Jersey Notaries" is a comprehensive textbook designed specifically to satisfy the six-hour educational requirement. It is a professionally published curriculum (ISBN: 9798248397228) covering every aspect of notarial practice in New Jersey.
 

Beyond the textbook, we created a complete facilitator's guide so thorough that anyone, even someone with no prior notarial experience, can successfully teach the full six-hour course. It includes:

• Detailed lesson plans with timing recommendations

• Scripts for explaining complex concepts

• Discussion prompts and scenario-based learning

• Complete answer keys

• Guidance on handling student questions
  
   

Going Further

A Seven-Hour Video Library

Recognizing that different people learn in different ways, we also created a comprehensive educational video library. Every chapter of "Garden State Notary" became an engaging instructional video. The total runtime is nearly seven hours.