Hi, I'm Avalon. I'm your liaison with State Archives. I'm here to guide you through the basics of managing educational records. We will cover 3 different areas.
Classifying the record type, and appraising it's value.
The disposal of a record when it's life cycle has ended.
Follow along, and we'll have you confident in your handling of records in no time!
Common Terms
RECORD-
A book, letter, document, paper, map, plan, photograph, film, card, tape, recording, electronic data, or other documentary material regardless of physical form or characteristics:
(i) that is prepared, owned, received, or retained by a governmental entity or political subdivision; and
(ii) where all of the information in the original is reproducible by photocopy or other mechanical or electronic means.
RECORD SERIES-
A group of records that can be treated as a unit for purposes of designation, description, management, or disposition.
SCHEDULE-
“Schedule,” “scheduling,” and their derivative forms mean the process of specifying the length of time each record series should be retained by a governmental entity for administrative, legal, fiscal, or historical purposes and when each record series should be transferred to the state archives or destroyed.
DISPOSITION-
According to the legal definition, records must be either destroyed or transferred to the State Archives when that length of time has elapsed. The final destruction or transfer of records to the State Archives.
I’m here at the Utah State Capitol to talk quickly about laws. The Public Records Management Act, or PRMA not only outlines who owns the records, “HINT- THE STATE”, But, it establishes the record keeping responsibilities. We'll dive into the law, and Board Rule. I’ll explain what is required, I'll provide some guidance, and leave you with some considerations.
GRAMA Links to an external site.is a law dealing with management of government records. GRAMA states who has access to records and how the law is enforced. The law attempts to balance a citizen’s right to access government records with individuals’ constitutional rights of privacy when the government gathers personal data, and the public policy interest in allowing a government to restrict access to certain records. GRAMA is the equivalent to what many states or the federal government call FOIA, or the Freedom of Information Act.
PRMA mandates state ownership of government records and requires their effective management and care (Utah Code 63A-12Links to an external site.). The Public Records Management Act also establishes the record keeping responsibilities of governmental entities.
It defines the responsibilities of the Division of Archives and Records Service, the State Archivist, and the Government Records Ombudsman.
An LEA shall retain and dispose of all student data in accordance with an approved retention schedule.
If no existing retention schedule governs student disciplinary records collected by an LEA:
An LEA may propose to the State Records Committee a retention schedule of up to one year if collection of the data is not required by federal or state law or Board rule; or
An LEA may propose to the State Records Committee a retention schedule of up to three years if collection of the data is required by federal or state law or Board rule, unless a longer retention period is prescribed by federal or state law or Board rule.
An LEA's retention schedules shall take into account the LEA's administrative need for the data.
Unless the data requires permanent retention, an LEA's retention schedules shall require destruction or expungement of student data after the administrative need for the data has passed.
A parent or adult student may request that an LEA amend, expunge, or destroy any record not subject to a retention schedule under Section 63G-2-604Links to an external site., and believed to be:
inaccurate;
misleading; or
in violation of the privacy rights of the student.
An LEA shall process a request under Subsection (6) following the same procedures outlined for a request to amend a student record in 34 CFR Part 99, Subpart C.
Records should be managed at each stage of their lifecycle, from the time that they are created to the time that they cease to hold any administrative, legal, or fiscal value, and are destroyed or are preserved for their historical value. The lifecycle of a record is: creation, maintenance and use, and disposition.
In the first phase, a record is created, received, or captured.
In the second phase, records are maintained and used actively or inactively until retention is met. Records being actively used should be housed in a way that allows for easy access and minimizes loss or physical damage to the materials. Active records are often used by many people and need to be tracked for retrieval purposes. Inactive records are used less than once a month but must be retained for occasional reference or to meet audit or legal obligations; once inactive, records may feasibly be moved outside of the immediate office area or to off-site storage.
The last phase, disposition, arrives when records have met their retention, at which point they must either be destroyed according to schedule or, if they have historical value, be maintained permanently.
Disposition means the act of disposing of records or transferring custody of them to an appropriate repository. Records have a disposition of destroy or of never destroy, which is usually phrased as “transfer to the State Archives,” where they can be preserved permanently.
SCENARIO- You've just been given the task of organizing the back storage room. You enter, and there are filing cabinets and boxes full of folders, forms, and pages of who knows what filling the space. You probably shouldn't be keeping all of it... but, you're not sure what stays, and what goes.
How do you take your first step in this project?
STEP 1 - Knowing what IS, and what IS NOT a record.
PERMANENT RECORDS
Examples:Publications, constitution & bylaws, oaths of office, administrative hearings, proposed legislation, open meeting minutes, PR records, annual reports, audit records, faculty history records, training aids, student history, graduation & transcripts, school histories, and artifacts.
NON-RECORDS
Examples:A personal note, a temporary draft, proprietary software, junk mail, a commercial publication, a book that is cataloged, a daily calendar or other personal note, a note or internal memorandum, a telephone number.
THE REST...
These are the records that we need to classify, appraise, and retain.
Storage Solutions
The State Record Center in Clearfield:
Stores inactive records (access less than a month or less).
Storage is free.
The LEA retains ownership/custody.
Disposition is determined by the retention schedule.
