Public Records

This week’s blog post examines cell phone usage and schools, including the new law requiring districts to adopt a policy on student cell phone use and legal issues related to cell phone use by board members.

Access to student records

The Ohio Electronic Records Committee (OhioERC) recently pushed out a new online training series for state and local governmental officials and employees. The training provides information and best practices on managing email as a public record and includes four training modules:

If you have towering piles of papers, bulging boxes of student files, or teetering stacks of outmoded technology storage, and you’re wondering how to manage it all, check out our records retention webinar:

This week is Sunshine Week, which is a national initiative to educate the public about the importance of open government.

Records retention is the process school districts use to manage the records that are created and flow through a school district.

Earlier today, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine released an updated version of Ohio Sunshine Laws: An Open Government Resource Manual, which is commonly referred to as the “Yellow Book.” The manual includes information about Ohio’s Public Records Act and Open Meetings Act (collectively referred to as the Sunshine Laws) and includes recent updates.

Two state agencies have recently prepared new resources for school districts: The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) updated its truancy and attendance guidance, and the Ohio History Connection (OHC) added resources for properly managing local government records.

Truancy and discipline resources

Ohio’s Open Meetings Act was enacted in 1975 as Ohio Revised Code Section (RC) 121.22. It, together with the Public Records Act (RC 149.43), is commonly referred to as “the Sunshine law.”

The Open Meetings Act’s basic purpose is to require public bodies, including boards of education to:

On Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a ruling in State ex rel. School Choice Ohio, Inc. v. Cincinnati Pub. School Dist. [Cincinnati Public School District was dismissed as a respondent in this case when it entered into a settlement agreement with SCO.]

In October 2013, School Choice Ohio (SCO) submitted a public records request to Springfield City School District, requesting: