You can read and indicate support for this legislation at the links below.
Burial Records Bill
URGENT: This legislation is now in the Mental Health Committees of the NYS Senate and Assembly. Please contact the bill’s sponsors and ask that they request that it be moved to the Senate or Assembly floor. Also, contact your state representative requesting support. Thank You!
Senate sponsor Senator Patricia Fahy
Assembly sponsor Assemblymember Phil Ramos
S8903 – https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S8903
Medical Records Bill
A3733A – https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A3733/amendment/A
S4713A – https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S4713/amendment/A
Find your New York State Assemblymember at: Assembly Member Search | New York State Assembly
Find your New York State Senator at: Find My Senator | NYSenate.gov
Below is a sample letter of support. Feel free to copy, paste, and edit as you like.
Dear Senator/Assembly Member:
As a resident of [town, NY]_, I am writing to respectfully urge your support for proposed legislation (S8903/A10242) that would allow the release of burial location information for deceased individuals interred in New York State psychiatric hospital cemeteries.
Across New York, thousands of men, women, and children who lived and died in state psychiatric institutions were buried in institutional cemeteries, their graves often marked only by numbers or left unmarked entirely. In many cases, families were never informed of their burial locations, and access to this information remains restricted. Among those buried in these cemeteries are United States military Veterans — individuals who served their country and later died while under the care of New York State.
The continued restriction of burial records perpetuates a legacy of stigma and erasure. These individuals were isolated in life and are now effectively hidden in death. This is especially troubling for Veterans, including those who served as far back as the Civil War. New York has long recognized a special obligation to honor those who served in the Armed Forces, yet Veterans buried in psychiatric hospital cemeteries are denied the most basic recognition routinely afforded to those buried elsewhere.
This legislation provides a reasonable and compassionate remedy. It would allow families to locate and memorialize loved ones. It would also enable Veterans’ organizations to identify and properly honor these individuals with military grave markers, inclusion in official rolls of honor, and public recognition of their service — ensuring their sacrifice is no longer lost to institutional anonymity.
At its core, this issue is about dignity. No person — and especially no Veteran — should be reduced to a number and hidden from history because of institutionalization. Releasing burial information for the deceased affirms that those who died in state care were individuals with names, families, and histories, and that military service does not lose its meaning because of illness.
I respectfully ask that you support and co-sponsor S8903/A10242 and help ensure that New York State honors the dignity and memory of all those who died in state care — Veterans and civilians alike.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Other states
The Nebraska Supreme Court in Adams County Historical Society v. Kinyoun held that the burial records of the former patients of a state asylum were death records, and as such public records subject to release. Nebraska law has been changed to reflect this.
https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=84-712.01
Ohio passed legislation declaring medical records of a person who has been deceased fifty years or more are not considered confidential. Ohio Revised Code Section 5122.31 (A) (14) https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-5122.31
In Massachusetts, a group of former patients and local residents, have worked together to identify the patients buried in the numbered graves and help preserve two cemeteries. Their slogan is, “It could have been me buried in there.”
Give Back Their Names 