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

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. 319



“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.) 320

“Class 3 – Disposable.” 321



“Class 3” documents are “All records, other than Continuing Records, not classified as Class 1- Permanent or Class 2-Optional.” 322 Continuing records are “active and useful for administrative, legal, fiscal, or other purposes over a period of years.” 323 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. 324 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.” 325 3. A CCESS TO S TUDENT R ECORDS Both Title 5 and the Education Code grant current or former students unlimited access to their records. 326 A student may access his/her/their own records upon 15 days’ notice and pursuant to the District’s procedures. The District must notify students of their right to access and challenge information in their student records. 327 Students may waive their right to access recommendations. 328 A student may also give consent to third parties to access their records. 329 Consent can only be given in a signed and dated writing. The District must furnish records pursuant to court order or subpoena. 330

Under the Education Code, 331 the following may also have access:

 Officials and employees of the community college who have a legitimate educational interest.  Authorized representatives of the Comptroller General of the United States, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, an administrative head of an education agency, state education officials, or their respective designees or the United States Office of Civil Rights, where that information is necessary to audit or evaluate a state or federally supported education program or pursuant to a federal or state law, except that when the collection of personally identifiable information is specifically authorized by federal

Name that Section: Frequently Used Education Code and Title 5 Sections for Community College Districts ©2020 (c) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 103