U.S. K-12 Schools Must Comply With e-Discovery Rule

Lucas123 writes "K-12 school districts throughout the US have a daunting IT homework assignment over the summer: Develop systems that ensure their electronic documents, email and instant messages are in compliance with new federal e-discovery regulations, much in the same way corporations have been preparing over the past year. The new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) are expected to be widely enforced by the end of 2007, according to a Computerworld story. '"A lack of preparation could prove dire for K-12 school districts, which oftentimes lack technical proficiency, funding and legal expertise," said Robert Ayers, technology coordinator for the Kingston, Pa.-based Luzerne Intermediate Unit 18 school district.'"

Comments

E-Discovery?

[smartbei]

For those (like me) unaware of this terminology: (from TFA)

September 2005 updates to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) require that electronic documents -- including e-mail and perhaps even instant messaging logs -- be available as evidence in civil court cases. Observers note that widespread enforcement of the rules will likely begin by the end of 2007, a year later than expected (see "New e-discovery rules go into effect in December ").

Not just schools

[Bender0x7D1]

It is important to realize that these rule changes aren't just for schools - they apply to every company in the U.S..

So, for those of you who are the entire IT department where you work, or if you run your own business as a consultant, (or some similar situation), you might want to pay attention to what is required regarding email and IM retention under the new rules.

Re:Small businesses

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly, your phone conversations are recorded already and they have been for some time. This is just the next step.

ALERT! - This is all VENDOR HYPE!!!

[spiedrazer]

I manage the networks for a K-12 school district and I am being bombarded by this same info, most of it feuled by vendor FUD!! The Rules of discovery that everyone is referencing do NOT say in any way that all electronic communications need to be stored or archived in any way.

What the rules DO now officially state (which they didn't before last year) is that electronic communications must now be treated the same as traditional paper documentation.

Specifically, that means that you cant destroy any correspondance or record HAVING TO DO WITH AN ONGOING LEGAL ACTION/LITIGATION or that you can reasonaby expect may lead to litigation. For my organization, that is less than one percent of the volume of data I have. All the vendors are saying that we need to archive ALL our e-mails in a searchable database yada yada yada so that we can protect ourselves against some unknown threat that we may be found in violation of these rules. That simply isn't the case. We will be in trouble if we destroy evidenmce in an ongoing legal case, but that is about it.

What we DO need to do is insure that the HR department and others that typically deal with sensitive legal topics understand the rules, and that they should print out and save anything that they suspect could come back to bite us, like adverse personell actions. We also need to insure that building administrators do the same when it comes to discipline actions concerning students etc.

AGAIN, anyone who tells you that you NEED to archive/store ALL e-mail or other electronic documents is at best completely mis-informed (like most of the journalists parroting back the FUD)or at worst trying to scam you directly with their FUD.

That upper-leg tick really needs attention.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Ah, President Bush. I thought I smelled your foul stench.

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are promulgated by the Supreme Court (and written by their employees), after receiving a Congressional rubber stamp. Bush and his whole branch of government aren't even in the loop.

But somehow it's Bush's fault, right? Did you elect him the official scapegoat? (If you get a cold it's Bush's fault. If the Supreme Court promulgates a rule you don't like it's Bush's fault. He wasn't there for the election - but that's HIS fault.)

You really need to get medical attention for that jerking knee.

People take Fed.waaay too seriously

[flyneye]

Basically the problem is federal funding.
It works like this.
We work and pay taxes to both federal and state.
State runs school on state taxes and gets federal grants.
Too many people believe the power of government flows from the Fed to the state to the people.
FACT: power flows from the people to the state to the fed.
Problem:Fed withholds funds(our taxes)if states aren't politically correct and cause liberal embarassment.
Solution:contact your state representative with your concerns about school funding.Contact your u.s. representative about the fed digging its nose out of business it was never constitutionally allowed to be in.
Repeat as necessary.

New rules aren't a requirement to save everything

[TheHappyMailAdmin]

A lot of media sources and technology companies are taking this to the extreme because a) scary news sells more ad space and b) scary news sells more servers.
Here's a link to the original document: http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/Reports/ST09-2005.pd f [PDF file]
Focus on pages 24-36 of the pdf, which discusses the background of the new rules, and 103-240 which include the actual regulations. The new e-discovery rules do not require everyone to keep copies of everything forever.

Note that the full 332 page document includes multiple topics, only one of which is e-discovery.
And in closing, IANAL.

Re:Poor schools

[Technician]

Observers note that widespread enforcement of the rules will likely begin by the end of 2007

And those poor districts who barely can provide any computing resources are likely to fold their IT shop as too expensive to maintain due to the legal threat of non-compliance. It's why many schools have a metal and wood shop, most have dropped Drivers Education as part of the regular HS electives.

I took Defensive Driving Drivers ED in High School. Now that I have adopted kids entering HS, we just received a notification that the Drivers Education program has been dropped. Anyone who signed-up will need to reschedule an elective class. Budget constraints were the reason for the change.

The computer classes are the next budget axe if compliance is too much of a liability for schools with limited budgets.