BOARD POLICY Policy Section FOI/RECORDS MANAGEMENT Administrative Procedure Number AP-FOI -305 Policy Number 305 Page 1 of 6 POLICY TITLE Records and Information Management 1.0 PURPOSE The Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board is committed to managing records and information, including electronic and paper, in a disciplined, coordinated, and strategic manner. The purpose of this Policy is to establish requirements to protect the legal, fiscal, and other interests of the Board and the public in managing records and information safely and securely for as long as they are required. 2.0 POLICY It is the policy of the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board to support the efficient and effective Records and Information Management (RIM) program and service delivery; to foster informed decision making; to facilitate accountability, transparency, and collaboration; and to preserve and ensure access to records and information in accordance with the laws of Canada and Ontario and for the benefit of present and future generations. 3.0 GUIDELINES 3.1 All Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board records, regardless of their format or location, are the property of the Board. 3.2 Good records management practice is essential and shall be used by the Board in creating, receiving, using, handling, maintaining, storing and disposing records required for the Board to fulfill its obligations and meet the expectations of its stakeholders.
FOI/RECORDS MANAGEMENT Page 2 of 6 P-305 3.3 The Board s records management policy, program and practice shall be based on current professional standards and best practices. 3.4 Records in all media and formats, including but not limited to paper, electronic documents and files, e-mail, photographs, film, audio and visual tapes, drawings etc., created and received as evidence of Board activities shall be captured as records and maintained in all processes and systems. 3.5 Responsibility for capturing and maintaining records shall rest with the Board as a whole and with individuals within the organization. All staff shall be responsible for Records Management within their assigned School/Department including that created or maintained by a third party on their behalf. 3.6 The context and structure of records shall be managed in the Board s record-keeping system, in order to maintain record security, reliability and authenticity. 3.7 The appropriate use and re-use of information contained within records shall be guided by records management policy and procedures and any current legislation. 3.8 Retention of records shall be scheduled and authorized so that they are retained only for as long as they are needed. 3.9 Records shall be protected from inappropriate access, alteration and usage. 3.10 Board records of archival value shall be preserved and access provided where restrictions do not apply. 3.11 Personal information contained in Board records shall be created, used, maintained and disposed of in an appropriate and legal manner. 3.12 Board records, being the property of the Board, shall not be removed from its control or destroyed except under the authority of this policy. 3.13 Risks to records and information shall be managed, and practices and processes shall be in place to protect information assets. All recorded information of archival value shall be preserved.
FOI/RECORDS MANAGEMENT Page 3 of 6 P-305 3.14 Records and information shall meet the needs of staff and stakeholders. Information shall be timely, accurate, reliable, and relevant, have integrity, and be easy to use. 3.15 Coordinated planning for records and information management shall be linked to organizational goals, objectives, and financial planning. The cost and effort of recorded information management activities shall be consistent with the value of the information. 3.16 The management of records and information shall be integrated with program planning and other business processes. 3.17 The management of records and information shall ensure provisions for the protection, privacy, and appropriate use of RIM to mitigate any potential risks. Timely disposal shall be ensured for recorded information that has been identified as not having archival value. 4.0 TERMS AND DEFINITIONS 4.1 RECORDS INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PROGRAM The records information management program is the systematic control of records throughout their life cycle. Information is at the centre of everything an organization does: strategy management, research and development, compliance. How the organization manages that information and its corporate records can directly affect its ability to compete, complies with regulations, and recovers from disaster in other words, to operate efficiently. 4.2 RECORD A record is any record of information however recorded, whether in printed form, on film, by electronic means or otherwise, and includes: correspondence, a memorandum, a book, a plan, a map, a drawing, a diagram, a pictorial or graphic work, a photograph, a film, a microfilm, a sound recording, a videotape, a machine readable record, any other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, and any copy thereof, and
FOI/RECORDS MANAGEMENT Page 4 of 6 P-305 any record that is capable of being produced from a machine readable record under the control of the Board by means of computer hardware and software or any other information storage equipment and technical expertise normally used by the institution. 4.3 PAPER RECORDS Paper records are written documents preserving knowledge of facts or events. 4.4 ELECTRONIC RECORDS Electronic records are records created, communicated, and maintained by means of electronic equipment. Their content is usually in code and has been recorded on media such as magnetic discs, drums, tapes, punched paper cards, or punched paper tapes, accompanied by finding aids known as software documentation. The coded information is retrievable only by machine. 4.5 PERSONAL INFORMATION Personal information is recorded information about an identifiable individual, including: information relating to the race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, or marital or family status of the individual, information relating to the education or the medical, psychiatric, psychological, criminal or employment history of the individual, or information relating to financial transactions in which the individual has been involved, any identifying number, symbol, or other particular assigned to the individual, the address, telephone number, fingerprints, or blood type of the individual, the personal opinions or views of the individual except where they relate to another individual, correspondence sent to the Board by the individual that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature, and replies to that correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence, the views or opinions of another individual about the individual, and
FOI/RECORDS MANAGEMENT Page 5 of 6 P-305 the individual s name where it appears with other personal information relating to the individual or where the disclosure of the name would reveal other personal information about the individual. 4.6 BOARD RECORDS Board records are documents, data, or recorded information in all media and formats created, received, and maintained as evidence and information in the administration of the activities of the Board. 4.7 NON-RECORD MATERIALS Non-record materials are documents, data, or information in all media and formats created, received as a result of personal activities. These may be works created as a result of intellectual or artistic activity and acquired in preparation for teaching and in the course of research (unless created under specific contract with the Board that indicates otherwise), and they are the intellectual properties of the staff and are not Board record. 4.8 ACTIVE RECORDS Active records are records that are created or received in the course of Board work or activities and are in frequent use. These remain under the custody, responsibility, and control of the department/school of the Board that generates and maintains these records. 4.9 SEMI-ACTIVE RECORDS Semi-active records are records used less frequently but where the ownership remains with the department even when the records are transferred to the Board s Records Centre or other storage facilities. 4.10 INACTIVE RECORDS Inactive records are records no longer needed for Board activities. These may be destroyed or, if they are appraised as being records of permanent value, they may be transferred to the Board s archives. Custody, responsibility, and control of permanent records of value are transferred to the Board s archives.
FOI/RECORDS MANAGEMENT Page 6 of 6 P-305 5.0 REFERENCES/RELATED DOCUMENTS PIM Toolkit, 2008 Education Act, Section 8 (1) (27) Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act 6.0 RELATED POLICIES Policy 307, Ontario Student Record Policy 308, Municipal Freedom of Information/Protection of Privacy Policy 311, Records and Information Management Prevention, Emergency, Disaster, and Recovery 7.0 RELATED FORMS 8.0 APPROVED BY BOARD October 26, 2010 9.0 EFFECTIVE DATE October 26, 2010 10.0 POLICY REVIEW DATE October 2015 11.0 REVIEW BY Communication Services