Name that Section - Frequently Used Education Code and Title 5 Sections for Community College Districts

D. S TUDENT RECORDS

1. W HAT M UST B E R ETAINED Under the Education Code, student records include any information that that is related to a student. 304 It does not include directory information, medical treatment information, letters of recommendation, law enforcement records and parent financial information. 305 Directory information is general information about the student including, their name, address, telephone number, date of birth, major field of study, participation in official school sports and organizations, dates of attendance, awards and degrees, and the prior most recent school attended. 306 Districts must establish policies regarding the identification and release of directory information. 307 Districts must also establish regulations regarding the maintenance, destruction, and compilation of student information. 308 Title 5 establishes that districts may only retain information relevant to, admission, registration, academic history, benefits, extracurricular activities, counseling and guidance, discipline. 309

2. H OW L ONG M UST R ECORDS B E R ETAINED ?

Title 5 requires the District to classify all records as either:

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“Class 1 – Permanent Records”

Class 1 records include scholarship and enrollment records and must be kept indefinitely. 310

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“Class 2 – Optional”

Any document, “worthy of further preservation but not classified as Class 1 (Permanent) may be classified as Class 2 (Optional.) It shall then be retained until it can be reclassified as Class 3 (Disposable.) 311

“Class 3 – Disposable.” 312

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“Class 3” documents are “All records, other than Continuing Records, not classified as Class 1- Permanent or Class 2-Optional.” 313 Continuing records are “active and useful for administrative, legal, fiscal, or other purposes over a period of years.” 314 These records may be reclassified as Class 3 when they are no longer useful. Optional documents are not classified until the academic year after they are created. 315 If they are then classified as disposable, the records “should be destroyed during the third college year after the college year in which it originated.” For example, if the record was created in the 2009- 10 school year, the third college year is the 2012-13 academic year. A continuing record “shall not be destroyed until the third year after it has been classified as Class 3- Disposable.” 316

Name that Section: Frequently Used Education Code and Title 5 Sections for Community College Districts ©2018 (c) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 100