Records - location & retention

[Kyle Schneider]

I had a request from a district to put together a list of records that need to be kept, where they should be kept, and for how long they should be kept. (On a site visit, we discovered 20 year old files that were 8 inches thick and stuffed with Kindergarten artwork.) 

I went through the state’s student data reporting handbook and records retention documents and have put together a spreadsheet of where I think everything belongs. I’m very interested in feedback from all of you and I think this might be useful to the larger group.

I do recognize that for some of you the distinction between a permanent and cumulative folder may not apply, this is targeted towards a small district that has D.O. admin assistant support, but no school secretaries, so they’re keeping two files and merging them as appropriate.

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Kyle Schneider
GSD Educational Services
Desk: 907-917-4149
Cell: 802-281-8430
ky...@gsded.com

[Robin Gage]

I don’t have much to add to this, but here are a few documents I’ve created to help guide our policies here as we work to digitize old records.

 

I got the UA registrar retention document a few years ago when I was looking for an outside perspective.

 

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Robin Gage

District Test Coordinator/PowerSchool Admin

Northwest Arctic Borough School District

907-442-1833

www.nwarctic.org

 

From: 'Kyle Schneider' via AK PSUG <ak-...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Friday, April 12, 2024 at 9:11 AM
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Subject: [AKPSUG] Records - location & retention

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[Kyle Schneider]

Thanks for all of that, especially the presentation. I’ll incorporate a few of the items I found into my recommendations (and also started a list of things that never need to be kept).

I have one question for you though - I noticed that for several of the items, you mention not needing to keep any of them, that you have them electronically, or that they can be reprinted from PowerSchool as needed. What’s your contingency plan for PowerSchool or your electronic document system going away? Anything more complex than searchable folders of well named PDF or TIFF documents seems to have an unknown expiration date. Companies go under, they discontinue platforms, decision makers want to transition to something else, etc. Software can be run on older hardware for a while in an unmaintained state, but eventually that poses security risks, or you simply may not be able to find hardware for it to run on any longer (I once had to help a district cobble together one working microfiche machine from a couple of broken ones).

—
Kyle Schneider
GSD Educational Services
Desk: 907-917-4149
Cell: 802-281-8430
ky...@gsded.com

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<Record retention for secretaries.pptx><Record retention.docx><UA Registrar-Retention-and-Disposition--Schedule.pdf>

[Kyle Schneider]

After reviewing the documents Robin sent, and the latest READS ACT FAQ, I’ve made a few changes to my document. It’s attached if you’re interested in adapting it to your district.

—
Kyle Schneider
GSD Educational Services
Desk: 907-917-4149
Cell: 802-281-8430
ky...@gsded.com

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[The Chad]

Could DEM / a PowerQuery be used to extract all these requiremented fields at once?

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[Kyle Schneider]

For the things in PowerSchool, probably? But how would you use that to respond to a records request in a way that the recipient would be able to use?

A printable report with all the info would be more useful. You wouldn’t even necessarily need a PQ for that, though making one would allow you to use PQ DATs in an object report for a lot of it.

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Kyle Schneider

GSD Educational Services

Phone: 907-917-4149

Fax: 802-281-3272

Ky...@gsded.com

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 19, 2024, at 8:57 AM, The Chad <chad....@k21schools.org> wrote:



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[Jamie Burgess]

We still have a cumulative file for every student that is paper while they are enrolled with us. Once they graduate, or they transferred out and they would be 20 or older, we scan everything from the cumulative file.  That way if there is a records request, we can send those.  The secretaries make printouts from PowerSchool each year for their cumulative files for items we wish to keep.

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Thanks.

Jamie S. Burgess

Superintendent, Nome Public Schools
907-443-6191

[Robin Gage]

I'm just going to throw out a couple of thoughts here.

 

What’s your contingency plan for PowerSchool or your electronic document system going away? 

I guess my question would be, what is your plan? 😆

 

Paper is temporary, so anything important needs to be digitized in some way. Saving copies of documents locally and in the cloud is my solution for that. PDF copies of transcripts from the end of every year, PDF copies of test scores or other electronic score reports. With regard to attendance, that is in the Summer OASIS. Transfer requests, we could do better at adding those to the

 

I think your retention plan is pretty aggressive; although we also keep diplomas (and will continue to do so), I don’t see them specifically named in any of the retention guides. Just want to put that out there that transcripts are what we are required to have, a diploma is more of a ceremonial document. With regard to elementary and high school report cards, one guide says to keep those for only 3 years after the current school year.

 

 

FERPA doesn’t require us to provide records in a specific format or give copies to anyone. It just requires that we make them available for inspection and review. The FERPA guys made that point at ASTE this year.

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