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Governing body that dictates how private schools store student records

Steven Ragatz

I am relatively new to schools in general. We are in Maine, USA.

At our school our Admissions department that has gone completely paperless, but the closely related Academics department has not, and still relies on papers in folders. Once the candidate is promoted to incoming student, and enrolled, there is a paper copy of the file generated, and the hard copy record becomes outdated from the digital copy.

I am told (unreliably) that this process is required by law (state, and that the school must either maintain paper copies, or go completely digital. Where can I go to find the definitive answer as to whether or not having the student files stored solely in the K/12 system satisfies any governing body? Thanks in advance.

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Jess Moxsky

Hi Steven,

I found these links on the Maine DOE page that you may find helpful:

https://www.maine.gov/doe/data-reporting/privacy/policies
https://www.maine.gov/doe/data-reporting
https://www.maine.gov/doe/data-reporting/collection/helpdesk/resources/data-reporting-instructions

Additionally, here is a link to a breakdown of FERPA requirements for K12 schools:

https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/audience/school-officials-k-12

David Gillespie

Steven,

There is information about record retention in Maine here:

Note that it may not apply to you as an independent school. I also don't see anything prohibiting a mix of digital and paper, which is something that's always going to happen in any transition process.

Also note that FERPA only applies to you if you accept federal DOE funds.

I attended a workshop several years ago called “Lawfully Managing Student Records Without Violating Privacy Rights” and the presenter early on acknowledged where I was from and said “of course, none of this officially applies to you, but it's a good guideline.” As a result, we have crafted a data retention policy that we believe is consistent with the requirements of Ohio but doesn't overpromise.

Why your academic folks still want to use paper for anything is a mystery to me; we haven't had paper files in 6 years, the file cabinets literally don't exist. When another school sends me a paper file, it goes into the copier/scanner and then the shredder - I wish people would just email records every time. Admissions was later than us on converting to digital and kept paper contracts and physical admission files going until perhaps 2-3 years ago. Accounts payable/finance is nearly converted over, so paper health records in the nurses' offices are perhaps the only remaining area in the school.

Dave

Scott Chrysler

Steven -

David makes excellent points and provides sound direction here, as usual. The one other place I would suggest you look is your accrediting body. If you are in Maine, I would imagine it is NEASC.

For my school, the state of Louisiana has some requirements and ISAS has a few more. We are free to keep the necessary records in either format or mixed formats.

Hope that helps.

All the best,

Scott

Jo Giesecke

FYI - If your school belongs to an accrediting association or council, they may have stricter guidelines than the state for records retention. It pays to check their guidelines also.