1711 Retention of Records | RCCL

It is the policy of Residential Child Care Licensing (RCCL) to comply with state and federal laws regarding the retention and disposition of licensing records. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that necessary records and documents are adequately protected and maintained; and to ensure that records that are no longer needed or are of no value are destroyed at the appropriate time. This policy is also intended to preserve records that must be maintained permanently for administrative reasons.

This policy applies to records, regardless of format, whether paper, electronic, or microform (e.g., microfilm, microfiche, magnetic tapes and CD-ROM), or more traditional media. RCCL encourages record retention in an electronic format whenever possible. If paper records are converted to an electronic format that captures and retains all information contained in the paper documents (e.g., PDF files), preservation of the original paper documents may not be required. RCCL staff shall consult with the RCCL Associate General Counsel before destroying original paper versions of documents, that have been converted into an electronic format, to determine if there are any laws that prohibit the destruction of the paper documents.

Individuals responsible for the retention of records are also responsible for the destruction of records following the retention guidelines listed in Section B of this policy. Documents should be destroyed in a manner that ensures that all sensitive or confidential material can no longer be read or interpreted. This means that applicable paper documents should be shredded, and applicable electronic documents should be erased or otherwise rendered unreadable.

O.C.G.A. § 50-18-90 et seq.

Retention Schedules for State Government Records (Distributed by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Division of Archives and History)
Guidance Form - RCCL File Retention Procedures

This policy applies to all RCCL staff and licensed Child Welfare Agencies.

Replaces Retention of Records POL1711, last reviewed on 4/01/2024.

The RCCL Director, Program Director and Administrative Assistant will evaluate this policy when purging records annually in December.