Email And Collaboration Application Retention

THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER RECOMMENDS

That the Chicago Board of Education (“Board”) amend Board Report 07-0725-PO3, E-Mail Retention Policy and rename the policy to Email and Collaboration Application Retention Policy, as part of the Board’s required biennial policy review. This policy was posted for public comment from August 30, 2024 until September 20, 2024.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this policy is to establish the retention and related requirements for items located on the Chicago Public Schools’ (“District”) email and collaboration applications which include Google Email, Google Tasks, Google Group Posts, Google Chat, Google Calendar, and Google Meet (“Google Workspace Applications").

POLICY TEXT

This Policy includes the minimum retention requirements that apply to items in specific Google Workspace Applications which are implemented by the Office of Information and Technology Services (“ITS”) for the District. The minimum retention requirements for items created, received, and maintained in the Google Workspace Applications included in the policy apply throughout the District to all student and non-student users. The minimum retention requirements have been established by the Local Records Commission of Cook County (“Commission”).

In accordance with the Local Records Act and the Board’s Records Management and Retention Policy, the Commission establishes the record retention periods for District records based on each record’s legal, fiscal, administrative, and historical value. The retention period for each record can be found in the District’s records retention schedule. Non-student users, including District employees, officers, temporary employees, interns, vendors, consultants, contractors, and authorized agents and volunteers, are required to save each item outside of these Google Workplace Applications if the item qualifies as a record that must be retained for a longer time period as required in the Board’s records retention schedule.

• Mailbox Size and Management

  The Board’s email and collaboration application system is to be used as a method of communication among employees and other authorized users for business purposes. It is not intended to be a medium in which to permanently store electronic information. Where the ITS has mailbox size or attachment restrictions in place, Users are required to manage the space in their mailbox appropriately. The retention periods described in this Policy do not guarantee that a User’s mailbox size will accommodate the storage of all email messages for the duration of the retention period. Therefore, Users should regularly review their messages and take timely action on long term retention needs. To stay within mailbox size limitations, email messages with large attachments should be saved to offline storage or printed immediately and then deleted from the mailbox.

• Retention Period

  1. Email messages and attachments, Google Group Posts, and Google Chats more than one (1) year in age will be automatically deleted by the system.
  2. Google Calendars Task items, and Meet items located on the email and collaboration application system (Google Workspace) more than two (2) years in age will be automatically deleted by the system.

  Any Google Workplace Application item, including attachments that need to be retained for longer than the minimum retention requirements of one (1) year or two (2) years either (a) pursuant to law, (b) an order of a court, (c) at the direction of the Board’s Law Department, (d) pursuant to the District’s records retention schedule on file with the Commission or that have administrative or historical value must be printed out or copied to offline or local storage by the User.

  ITS shall implement a system to suspend the District’s routine for destroying emails outlined herein when requested as part of a litigation hold by the Law Department. This suspension will be in place until ITS is directed otherwise by the Law Department.

• Email and Collaboration Applications Archive

  Information in the Google Workplace Applications may be public records and therefore, the District’s email and collaboration application system will utilize an archive system that will automatically record and retain User Google Workplace Application items in accordance with the retention periods listed in this section. The system will automatically destroy archived Google Workplace Application items in accordance with this Policy. The retention period and purge process will be applied automatically to a User’s archived Google Workplace Application items except when a User’s email messages and resources have been quarantined for litigation or for other limited, justified purposes as determined by the Law Department.

  Google Workspace Application	Retention Policy
  Google Email	1 Year
  Google Group Post	1 Year
  Google Chat	1 Year
  Google Calendar	2 Years
  Google Meet	2 Years

Policy References