GCSA-E1 - Guidelines for Staff on Email, Confidentiality, and Record Retention

Guidelines for Staff on Email, Confidentiality, and Record Retention

 

Email makes it much easier to collaborate and share information with students, staff and guardians. At the same time, employee use of email raises important issues of privacy and confidentiality which employees need to keep in mind.

  1. Committee has adopted an employee technology use policy and rules (GCSA/GCSA-R) that specifies that employees have no right to privacy in using school technology and that email use may be monitored.

  2. Email communications containing personally identifiable information about students will usually be subject to disclosure as the result of a parent request for education records under FERPA. Be extremely careful what you say in e-mails. Consider a phone call to meet and discuss sensitive issues instead of using email.

  3. A great deal of information about both students and employees is confidential under state and federal laws, including information shared via e-mail. Employees should take appropriate steps to safeguard confidential information when writing about students or other faculty, and/or sharing documents via e-mail.

Some basic guidelines for employees to follow when using email:

  1. Don't share passwords or access information stored on devices without authorization.

  2. Avoid the use of full names of students and staff in e-mails whenever possible.

  3. Do not leave confidential emails open on computer monitors or leave printed materials on printers/copiers where others may see them.

  4. Be very careful when using the "reply" and “reply all” functions in email. Think carefully about to whom emails are being sent and whether the recipient(s) are authorized or need to see them, particularly when using the "reply to all" or "forward" functions.

  5. Remember that you lose complete control of an email once it is sent and it could be forwarded to others. Think hard about whether it would be better to discuss the particular issue by phone or by talking in person, particularly when the subject matter is sensitive.

  6. Write emails very carefully - the tone should always be professional and appropriate to the school setting, and check spelling and grammar. Don‘t write emails in anger and be careful about making disparaging remarks about third parties. Write emails as if they are going to end up on the front page of the newspaper, because sometimes they do.

  7. Many emails constitute student records, or other records that schools are required to retain under various laws and rules. Be sure to retain these e-mails as required by school department procedures.

  8. NEVER delete emails or other documents after you have received notice that a document request has been made. Even after you delete documents, they can still be retrieved. Trying to circumvent the system can land students, teachers and the school department in legal trouble.

  9. Signature Line: All employee signature lines will include the following:

    1. Name

    2. Position

    3. Contact Info

    4. Confidentiality Statement

Adopted:   February 12, 2013

Revised:   March 9, 2023