From dusty filing cabinets to warehouses to the cloud, school districts today face the growing challenge of managing vast amounts of both physical and digital student records. The variety of formats increases complexity in retention and disposal, making it essential to have consistent practices across all platforms.
Recently, while assisting a school district client, we uncovered all manner of records that staff were purposefully maintaining, which could expose the district to unnecessary liability. There were paper files containing Social Security numbers, massive audio recording files of individualized education program meetings that take up space, and emails older than high school seniors.
The worst part was that the district was carrying that heavy, expensive records burden voluntarily. No laws required the retention of millions of files that cost hundreds of thousands of public tax dollars to maintain every year.
Even as districts have shifted to digitizing records, many leaders are all too familiar with being bogged down in maintaining physical files that span multiple generations of students and employees who have long left the district and live in other jurisdictions and countries. By holding onto those old, sensitive records, the district could expose itself to noncompliance with data privacy laws.
Without making conscientious data governance decisions, many districts remain in a reactive posture, holding onto documents, files, and records that schools are not legally required to maintain. Worse, these unnecessarily maintained records create high costs and significant liability should a security incident occur.
Limitations of student records laws
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is the primary federal law governing student records, but FERPA’s guidance on records retention is limited. Districts must retain student education records that are subject to a pending request for review of those records, but otherwise, FERPA is silent on how long districts must retain data, and how.
State and local records laws, regulations, and policies often provide more specific retention requirements. Most states mandate that a small number of records be kept permanently, such as student transcripts, and then create broad categories of records, such as financial records, land records, and academic reports that are required to be maintained for shorter periods of time.
The issue is that many of these requirements were created decades ago, focusing on paper records and physical storage. As districts transition to digital systems, outdated regulations can create confusion. Issues include:
- Ambiguity about what constitutes a “record” in digital environments.
- Digital copies may exist alongside paper originals, complicating disposal.
- Old records may be vulnerable if not securely archived or destroyed.
- Managing decades of records requires time, staff, and technology investments.
Districts must work within these outdated retention policies to create their own procedures that reflect current technologies and legal standards to minimize liability. The best way to do this is to create a district data governance team.
Deploying a data governance team
A dedicated data governance team is essential for ensuring student and employee data is handled in accordance with all regulations. This team should include administrators, IT professionals, outside legal advisors, and records managers. The team’s responsibilities would include:
- Assessing current data retention practices.
- Identifying gaps and risks in compliance.
- Establishing clear policies for retention, access, and disposal.
- Training staff on proper record-keeping and privacy protocols.
- Monitoring adherence and updating policies as laws change.
Guiding principles for district leaders
- Retain records for the minimum period required by law, and dispose of them promptly when allowed. If the law is unclear on that type of record, review the value of keeping it versus the risk it presents and discuss with your attorney.
- Keep only what is necessary for educational, legal, or operational purposes. Very few types of records must be kept in physical format. While a large endeavor initially, culling your district’s physical records could save hundreds of thousands of dollars in warehouse fees every year after.
- Protect records from unauthorized access, loss, or theft through robust technical and physical safeguards. Once the district knows what data it is maintaining, it can categorize that data based on confidentiality, risk, and compliance requirements and create a security plan for those records accordingly.
- Communicate retention policies clearly to staff, students, and families. Staff should be aware of which student records to maintain and which to promptly dispose of, and how. A teacher holding onto things in a student’s file can inadvertently result in unnecessary documents becoming part of the student’s educational record under FERPA, which increases the district’s legal obligations to protect it.
- Assign responsibility for records management, provide regular training, and invest in the creation of a data governance team. This is not a small job, and it requires staff with dedicated roles to its implementation.
Final keys to safety
Districts can minimize liability and protect student privacy by understanding the types of data it holds, staying informed about legal requirements, addressing outdated retention policies, and establishing a strong data governance team.
Proactive, well-informed strategies that are adequately staffed are the keys to safeguarding the interests of students, staff, and the district as a whole.
