Archives—Approved Records Destruction

Announcement: The hold on records destruction in the district has been lifted. Records may be destroyed per the Kentucky Public School District Records Retention Schedule supplemented by the JCPS Extended Retention Memorandum. Contact the Archives for more information.

Records may be destroyed on-site at the originating school or office or at the JCPS Archives and Records Center when the records have met the specified retention period and criteria for destruction.

Procedures

  • Examine the records you have and/or your existing records inventory.
  • See the public schools records retention schedule and associated documents to review identification of records and their legal retention periods. Determine which records have met their required retention periods.
  • Staff working with records will next write a memo describing the records and obtaining authorization to destroy records that are eligible. This memo is addressed to the school principal or office cost center head, who has the authority to approve the records destruction. See this example copy. The memo asks the responsible administrator if there is any current audit or litigation or if it is known that audit or litigation may be likely. If there is no reason to believe audit or litigation will affect the records, the destruction should be approved and proceed.
  • If a current or likely audit or litigation affects a portion of the records, place a hold on those records and proceed with the destruction of the other eligible records, including others in the same records series, that are not affected by the audit or litigation issues.
  • Confidential records in paper form must be shredded. Confidential records in other formats must be securely destroyed as well. School or office staff should supervise the destruction.
  • Destruction certificates must be created to document destruction of all records. Schools and offices must retain destruction certificates for records they destroy.
  • Here are the destruction certificate form and instructions and examples for completed certificates for records in hard copy format and records in electronic format. One copy of the completed certificate is mailed to the address at the top, the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives in Frankfort. One copy is retained at the school or office permanently. Keep the signed copy of the memo described above with the certificate copy retained at the school or office.

Instructions in the schedule, including those relating to retention periods, concerning students leaving school refer to students graduating or withdrawing from the district, not individual schools.

Destruction dates are assigned by year. For instance, records dated May 1, 2007, with a five-year retention period received an assigned destruction date of 2013, five and a half years later, so that months and days do not need to be tracked.

The Archives regularly contacts schools and offices whose archived records are due for destruction, following the procedures noted above. The Archives ensures that confidential records are properly destroyed.

The Archives and Records Center completes, files, and retains all destruction certificates for records it destroys.