NYS Guidelines for Managing E-mail & Electronic Documents

October 1, 2001

The proliferation of technology throughout districts in New York State and around the country is creating problematic situations that most schools have had difficulty anticipating. I have researched NYS guidelines for managing e-mail and electronic documents as they pertain to government agencies and schools. I was shocked at what I found. In fact, most of us are out of compliance with regulations for managing official electronic records. I will summarize some of the key items on which schools should focus according to my reading of the State Archive and Records Administration's (SARA) State Government Records Management Information Series.

Do e-mail, spreadsheets, and other word-processed documents fall into the definition of a "record" under the Freedom of Information Law? (FOIL)

"FOIL pertains to agency records, and since 1978, §86(4) has defined the term "record" expansively to mean:

"any information kept, held, filed, produced, reproduced by, with or for an agency or the state legislature, in any physical form whatsoever including, but not limited to, reports, statements, examinations, memoranda, opinions, folders, files, books, manuals, pamphlets, forms, papers, designs, drawings, maps, photos, letters, microfilms, computer tapes or discs, rules, regulations or codes."

...most of us (districts) are out of compliance with regulations for managing official electronic records.

So ,all e-mail or other e-documents created or received by school employees in connection with official business, are records that are subject to access, privacy, and records management laws and regulations.

• Policy directives
  
• Correspondence or memoranda related to official business
  
• Work schedules and assignments
  
• Agendas and minutes of meetings
  
• Drafts of documents that are circulated for comment or approval
  
• Any document that initiates, authorizes, or completes a business transaction
  
• Final reports or recommendations

• Personal messages and announcements not related to official business
  
• Copies or extracts of documents distributed for convenience of reference
  
• Phone message slips
  
• Announcements of social events, such as retirement parties or holiday celebrations

So, what does this mean for me?
Many e-mail and technology users attempt to manage and store records within the e-mail or application utility. Most packages allow users to design personal filing systems consisting of electronic folders and other methods. Users can move incoming messages from their in-boxes to appropriate folders, organize outgoing messages into folders, establish work queues, and create deletion routines. This approach is great for non-official messages but falls short of the requirements for managing official records.

In most mail utilities, each end user controls his or her messages which are inaccessible to others who may need to access them. Both compliance and consistency are difficult to achieve because end users have a great degree of discretion regarding how to design and use the filing functions. Space limitations or restrictions on the number of messages that each user is allowed to store further limit the effectiveness of this approach for retaining official records.

Records that are transmitted and received through e-mail and e-document systems must be organized and stored in a filing system or repository. There are two basic options for filing and managing e-document records: print messages and file them in manual filing systems or transfer e-documents to an electronic filing system or repository.

How do I design and maintain an electronic filing system?
If a filing system is designed well, secure, and well maintained, it provides authorized users with easy and consistent access to organizational records. Measures can be put in place for naming documents, version control, and authentication that make it easy for users to locate the document and version they want and to ensure that documents retrieved from the filing system have not been altered. The repository can be designed with controls to prevent unnecessary duplication of records and to permit regular removal of obsolete records. Administrators must plan for and design a filing structure that can adequately support operational needs and record keeping requirements.

How long am I required to retain documents in the electronic filing system?
Agencies may delete, purge, or destroy records provided they have been retained for at least the minimum retention established by and approved records disposition schedule and the records are not being used for a legal action or audit. SARA approves records or disposition schedules which authorize agencies to destroy obsolete records and establish a management plan for orderly disposition of records in the normal course of business. Generally, records transmitted through e-mail and electronic systems will have the same retention periods as records in other formats that are related to the same program function or activity.

Based on my initial research I believe each of us must learn more about the specifics of storing and retrieving official electronic records. There is an incredible amount of risk in not being aware of the regulations regarding managing official electronic records.

Next Topic: "E-Mail and Boards of Education: What are the NYS Committee on Open Government Guidelines?"

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