5016: Student Records
The ESU shall manage student records and reports as is necessary for effective administration and in compliance with law. In general "student records" shall not include transitory communications such as e-mail, text messages, handwritten communication between the ESU and home, and the like, and these items will not generally be maintained by the district.
For purposes of the ESU’s compliance with state and federal law, the ESU “maintains” student records which are printed and kept in the student’s physical file or which ESU staff have intentionally saved within the official ESU digital student information system that specifically identifies the student for whom those records are maintained. The ESU may also use learning management systems, which deliver and manage instructional content. The ESU maintains student records within its student information system but not in its learning management system. The official ESU student information system is the Nebraska Student Records System (SRS).
Each building administrator will assign responsibilities for the preparation and maintenance of records and will ensure compliance with the applicable federal and state laws, regulations, and record retention schedules regarding their storage and use in the building. No “student record” or record required to be retained by the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Record Retention Schedules applicable to the ESU will be destroyed unless it is first saved in a retrievable, digital format. This includes only records required to be kept by the applicable Retention Schedules and “student records” as defined by state and federal law, and this policy does not prohibit the ESU from following its record expungement procedures for all other records.
Students or their parents, guardians, teachers, counselors, or ESU administrators shall have access to the school's files or records maintained concerning themselves or their students. For purposes of this policy, “teachers” include paraeducators and volunteers who are providing educational services to a student on behalf of the ESU. An ESU official may access, maintain, and use education records containing personally identifiable information (PII) when he or she has a legitimate educational interest in such. “ESU administrators” includes any agent, volunteer, or contractor performing an institutional service or function for which the ESU would otherwise use its own employees and who is under the ESU’s direct control with respect to their access to, maintenance of, and use of PII from student records. For example, an ESU official may include, but would not be limited to, a teacher or other educator, administrator, supervisor, instructor, or support staff member (including health or medical staff and law enforcement unit personnel); ESU board member; volunteer; contractor or consultant who, while not employed by the ESU, performs an institutional service or function for which the ESU would otherwise use its own employees and who is under the direct control of the ESU with respect to the use and maintenance of PII from education records, such as an attorney, representative of the ESU’s insurance providers, auditor, medical consultant, therapist, or a third-party website operator who has contracted with the ESU or its agent to offer online programs for the benefit of students and/or the ESU; members of law enforcement acting on behalf of the ESU; a parent or student volunteering to serve on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee; or a parent, student, or other volunteer assisting another ESU official in performing his or her tasks. An ESU official typically has a “legitimate educational interest” if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill an ESU-related professional, contractual, statutory, or regulatory responsibility.
All disciplinary material shall be removed and destroyed upon the pupil's graduation or after the pupil's continuous absence from the ESU for a period of three years, and after authorization is given by the State Records Board pursuant to state law.
Outside agencies such as physicians, probation officers, psychologists, child guidance clinics, and other agencies concerned with child welfare who are working directly with a child may have access to information pertaining to that child with written parental consent or upon issuance of a valid court order.
The ESU shall share student data, records, and information with school districts, educational service units, learning communities, and the State Department of Education to the fullest extent practicable unless otherwise prohibited by law.
Each year, the ESU will notify parents and guardians of their rights under this policy and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
Adopted on: June 8, 2009
Revised on: December 11, 2014
Revised on: May 13, 2019
Revised on: August 10, 2020
Reviewed on: November 10, 2014
Reviewed on: May 8, 2023