BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2266
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2266 (Bradford)
As Amended April 14, 2010
Majority vote
EDUCATION 8-0
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|Ayes:|Brownley, Nestande, | | |
| |Ammiano, Arambula, | | |
| |Carter, Chesbro, Norby, | | |
| |Torlakson | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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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 the
governing board of the school district certifies in each
fiscal year, by a motion of the board duly passed and adopted,
that provisions are made to ensure that the photographic,
microfilm, or electronic copies of any records of the school
district meet both of the following requirements:
a) The copies will be maintained in a "trusted system," as
defined by current law, so that a document retrieved from
the system can not differ substantially from the original
document; and,
b) The copies of records are made in compliance with
standards or regulations currently required to be approved
and adopted by the Secretary of State (SOS) or, until those
are adopted, in compliance with the interim requirements
specified in statute.
3)States that these provisions do not relieve a school district
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from any requirement in law to produce an original record that
is basic to a required audit, unless that record can be
reproduced from a copy that was made pursuant to these
provisions.
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
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 SOS to approve and adopt appropriate standards
established by the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) or the Association for Information and Image Management
(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
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that a typical office operation in the United States generates
approximately 10,000 sheets of used paper per year for each
employee. Ten thousand 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
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 SOS to adopt, as regulations, the standards
developed by ANSI or AIIM to govern photographic, microfilm and
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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 SOS 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 SOS 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
SOS 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
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
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obligations, while at the same time generating a cost savings.
Analysis Prepared by : Gerald Shelton / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0003941