BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2266
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 7, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Julia Brownley, Chair
AB 2266 (Bradford) - As Introduced: February 18, 2010
SUBJECT : School district records
SUMMARY : Extends the authorization for school districts to
destroy records, which have been copied by photographic,
microfilm or electronic means, to include, under specified
conditions, original records that are basic to any required
audit. Specifically, this bill :
1)Deletes the requirement that no original record that is basic
to any required audit be destroyed prior to the second July
1st succeeding the completion of the audit.
2)Requires, before an original record is destroyed, that
provisions be made for permanently maintaining the copies in a
"trusted system," as defined by current law, and for making
the copies of records in compliance with standards recommended
by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or the
Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM).
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes the governing board of a school district to make
photographic, microfilm or electronic copies of original
district records.
2)Authorizes the destruction of an original record, but
requires, before an original record is destroyed, that
provisions be made for permanently maintaining the copies in
the files of the district.
3)Prohibits the destruction of an original record that is basic
to any required audit prior to the second July 1st succeeding
the completion of the audit.
4)Authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction to adopt
regulations governing the destruction of records, whenever the
destruction of records of a district is not otherwise provided
for by law; also authorizes the governing board of the
district to destroy such records of the district in accordance
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with those regulations.
5)States Legislative recognition of the need to adopt uniform
statewide standards for the purpose of storing and recording
permanent and nonpermanent documents in electronic media, and
requires the Secretary of State to approve and adopt
appropriate standards established by ANSI or AIIM.
6)Defines "trusted system" to mean a combination of techniques,
policies, and procedures for which there is no plausible
scenario in which a document retrieved from or reproduced by
the system could differ substantially from the document that
is originally stored.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill is keyed non-fiscal.
COMMENTS : The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates
that a typical office operation in the United States generates
approximately 10,000 sheets of used paper per year for each
employee. 10,000 sheets of unused office bond paper makes a
stack that is four feet high, though used paper takes up more
space. Thus the typical office operation will generate
approximately three standard file boxes full of paper each year
for each employee. In a school district operation most of this
paper would constitute an original record and be subject to
document retention requirements. In addition, many of these
documents, including period-by-period or day-by-day classroom
attendance sheets, financial statements, budget documents, and
payroll records, fall under the prohibition against destruction
of auditable documents for up to two years or fall into a
category of documents that must be permanently retained in paper
form. It is no wonder that, according to the author, the
sponsor of this bill (the Los Angeles Unified School District),
"discovered that the district was paying $1.2 million per year
in warehouse costs to store documents as a result of various
state audit requirements. This cost is paid from the district's
general fund and could otherwise be used to fund vital jobs and
operations eliminated due to budget cuts."
Clearly state and local agencies must maintain records generated
by day to day operations, and must be able to provide
documentation to auditors that provide necessary information for
the review and oversight of those operations. As early as the
1950s, however, the state sought to eliminate excess paper
records by authorizing specified state and local governmental
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entities to destroy original records that had been reproduced
through photographic or microfilm technologies; at the same
time, the state required a delay in the destruction of auditable
records until up to two years after the completion of any audit.
In the 1980s the Legislature moved to embrace emerging
technology by extending this authorization to include the
reproduction of records on electronic media; separate bills [SB
889 (Bergeson), Chapter 57, Statutes of 1989 and SB 849
(Bergeson), Chapter 1061, Statutes of 1991] made this
authorization subject to standards, that would ensure the
authenticity of the reproduction, to be developed by the
National Institute of Standards and Technology, and by ANSI or
AIIM, respectively. AB 972 (Torlakson), Chapter 677, Statutes
of 1998, as amended by SB 2067 (Bowen), Chapter 569, Statutes of
2000, required the Secretary of State to adopt, as regulations,
the standards developed by ANSI or AIIM to govern photographic,
microfilm and electronic copying of specified state and local
records. AB 1600 (Assembly Committee on Education), Chapter
646, Statutes of 1999, amended the Education Code to allow
school districts to make electronic copies of any records in the
district prior to destruction, as specified, but continued the
required delay in the destruction of auditable records.
The Secretary of State has continued to work toward adoption of
standards to govern the conversion of documents to electronic
media prior to destruction and to govern the storage of
electronic documents in a trusted system. A public hearing on
the proposed "trustworthy electronic document or record
preservation regulations" was held by the Secretary of State on
September 15, 2009. Consistent with the Administrative
Procedures Act, a series of 45-day and 15-day comment periods,
and the resulting review of comments, has led to subsequent
changes to the proposed regulations. The most recent 15-day
comment period ended on March 15, 2010, and the Secretary of
State is in the process of reviewing comments that were
received. A final version of the proposed regulations will be
submitted to the Office of Administrative Law at the end of this
process.
According to the author, this bill will "authorize a school
district to make reproductions of the original document
utilizing standards and guidelines as recommended [ANSI] or
[AIIM] and maintain those documents utilizing a "trusted
system", as defined in Government Code Section 12168.7." The
author also states that the bill would specifically, "Allow
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school districts to utilize existing technology and save general
fund money expended on storage cost as a result of requirements
to maintain paper documents for upwards of 8 years." and
"Provide a safe, secure and inexpensive alternative to
maintaining original documents that also protects the validity
and authenticity of the original document for audit purposes."
Essentially, this bill will extend a school district's authority
to destroy original records, once they have been copied, to
include records that are basic to a required audit without the
currently required delay in destruction. As a safeguard against
concern over any premature loss of auditable records, the bill
also moves to clarify and enhance the standards that copies of
records must meet prior to the destruction of those records. If
those enhanced standards are adhered to by school districts,
then this expanded authority will allow a district to use
current technologies to meet the district's fiscal and legal
obligations, while at the same time generating a cost savings.
Committee amendments: Committee staff recommends the following
amendments to this bill:
1)Make references to "copies of records" and to "reproductions
of records" to consistently read as "copies of records."
2)Require a governing board of a school district that chooses to
destroy records to annually certify that copies of records
destroyed are maintained and copied consistent with the
requirements proposed in this bill and specified in law.
3)Clarify that electronic copies of records must be made in
compliance with regulations adopted by the Secretary of State,
or until such regulations are adopted with standards developed
by ANSI or AIIM.
4)Clarify that nothing in this bill be interpreted to relieve a
governing board of a school district from any requirement in
law to produce an original record that is basic to any
required audit, unless that record can be reproduced from the
photographic, microfilm, or electronic copy that was made from
the original record.
Previous legislation: AB 1600 (Assembly Committee on
Education), Chapter 646, Statutes of 1999, amended the Education
Code to allow school districts to make electronic copies of any
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records in the district prior to destruction. AB 972
(Torlakson), Chapter 677, Statutes of 1998, as amended by SB
2067 (Bowen), Chapter 569, Statutes of 2000, required the
Secretary of State to adopt regulations using the standards
developed by ANSI or AIIM to govern photographic, microfilm and
electronic copying of specified state and local records. SB 849
(Bergeson), Chapter 1061, Statutes of 1991, permits state
agencies, counties, cities, and special districts to maintain
records in reproduced formats or storage media if the
reproduction or storage medium is in compliance with minimum
standards or guidelines, or both, as recommended by ANSI or
AIIM. SB 889 (Bergeson), Chapter 57, Statutes of 1989, requires
cities, counties and special districts to maintain permanent
copies of their records, papers, and documents in their original
paper form, or on microfilm, microfiche or in an electronic data
processing system
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Los Angeles Unified School District (Sponsor)
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087