Retention How State and Federal policies can impact local districts

Retention & Policy What are State of Iowa Requirements for local records? How long should be retained? How does Federal Law affect Schools? How is this interpreted for Iowa? Does SPAM need to be retained? What should a local district do in response?

Iowa Open Records Law s and Open Records Law Iowa Code chapter 22 is Iowa's Open Records law. A public record includes messages sent and received by a school district (or AEA or any public) employee on his/her school-owned computer. Just because the s are public records does not mean that every word within the communication gets released. Items that potentially could be expunged (e.g., omitted by using white-out) may include students' names, parents' names, home addresses, other "home" information, SSNs, etc. What information - if any - gets expunged depends on the context and intent of the .

Open Records Some senders of to district employees have some limited rights of privacy regarding their identity, again depending on all of the facts and circumstances. School administrators should check with their school attorneys when a request for copies of s (or any public document) is received. ICE/default.asp?category=billinfo&service=IowaCode&ga=82 s and Open Records Law URL to IOWA CODE Chapter 22- Open Records Law:

Retention From: Greta, Carol [ED] To: Jaras, Vic [ED] Subject: RE: School Retention Question maintain ALL correspondence (regardless of medium) for a minimum of two years There is a new federal court rule that boils down to this: if a school district is ever involved in litigation in federal court, it cannot destroy any that are pertinent to the case. The trick is for districts to try to "know" ahead of time what are pertinent or might be pertinent to a case that hasn't even been filed yet! As with written communications, the smart rule of thumb is for districts to maintain ALL correspondence (regardless of medium) for a minimum of two years past the date of the correspondence. Carol Greta, Attorney 3 Iowa Department of Education

Retention Here is more clarification from Carol Greta on retention: -There's no requirement to retain SPAM or for that matter, s of the "are you free for lunch" type! Carol Greta, Attorney 3 Iowa Department of Education

Further Clarification Source: -page 6 TIP: Be prepared to explain why some like SPAM is not reasonably accessible because of undue burden and cost.

Business & Retention as long as the deletion is part of a standard retention policy.Section 37(f) of the revised Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allows for the destruction of and other electronic documents, as long as the deletion is part of a standard retention policy. Despite the clear requirements, the Archiving Practices Survey showed that most organizations are not prepared: 53 percent of companies lack a policy to govern retention and deletion. 67 percent of companies allow individual end users to determine how long messages are kept by the company. 66 percent of companies do not have the archiving technology required to manage retention, litigation holds and e- Discovery. In the event of litigation, these companies would likely be required to search back-up tapes, desktop files and legacy systems to find information that was deleted in the absence of a good-faith retention policy. Source:

LexisNexis Iowa Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa:Iowa Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa: Scheduling Order and Discovery Plan Instructions and Worksheet for Preparation of Scheduling Order and Discovery Plan and Order Requiring Submission of Same Local Rule 16.1 Scheduling Order and Discovery Plan Local Rule 26.1 Pretrial Discovery and Disclosures Scheduling Order and Discovery Plan Instructions and Worksheet for Preparation of Scheduling Order and Discovery Plan and Order Requiring Submission of Same Local Rule 16.1 Scheduling Order and Discovery Plan Local Rule 26.1 Pretrial Discovery and Disclosures Source: These documents may provide useful information to develop a local policy

Local Policy Tech Director or Coordinator Superintendent Principal Special Ed Director Board Member (s) Local Attorney - DEVELOP YOUR LOCAL RESPONSE PLAN -DEFINE RESPONSIBILITIES -NOTIFY STAKEHOLDERS LOCAL POLICY COMMITTEE