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PREFACE
The Special Districts Records Retention Schedule was prepared by the Colorado State Archives. It is intended to provide a comprehensive records retention schedule for most records that are typically kept by any small, growing Colorado district and is not intended to cover all specialized records retained by larger districts. The document may list records that an individual district does not currently have, but that it may have in the future. The district should, however, request approval to follow the entire Special District Records Retention Schedule so that provisions are in place for future growth in records holdings.The Special District Records Retention Schedule should be reviewed periodically by the adopting districts and by the Colorado State Archives to ensure that appropriate updates are made. An Update Request Form is included in Appendix D.
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Subsequent to approval, the records retention schedule will apply to the listed records regardless of their format (electronic, microfilm, digital image, paper, audio or video recording, etc.). Non-paper storage (electronic, microfilm, digital image, audio or video etc.) for permanent records should be carefully evaluated to ensure that the storage system is nonproprietary and that there is a capability to migrate these records to the next generation of technology. |
Each district that receives approval to follow the Special District Records Retention Schedule should add notations regarding any local provisions affecting the retention periods of its records. To request approval for an individual Colorado district to follow the Special District Records Retention Schedule, complete the approval request form included in Appendix C – Approval Request Form.
The Colorado State Archives authorized special districts to submit requests for individual approval to follow the Special District Records Retention Schedule on _____________, 2008.
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IMPORTANT: THIS DOCUMENT DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL AUTHORITY OR NO RECORD SHOULD BE DESTROYED IF IT PERTAINS TO ANY
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HOW TO USE THE SPECIAL DISTRICT
RECORDS RETENTION SCHEDULE
Terminology
Terminology that may be unfamiliar to some users is explained in Appendix B – Glossary.
Numbering System
The Special District Records Retention Schedule is organized into individual schedules that group related records. Each schedule is assigned a reference number, and an item identification number is assigned to each records title listed (i.e. 1.10 means Schedule 1, Item 10). The schedule and item identification numbers are listed with the individual records titles in the index -- the key to locating records titles in the schedules.
Record Titles and Description
Because the records titles used may not reflect the exact records titles used by some districts, the retention schedule provides a short paragraph that gives descriptive information regarding the use and typical contents of each records series and sub-series.
Retention Periods
Retention periods are based on legal requirements for those records governed by such legal requirements and/or on common usage and industry standards for retention of special district records to meet typical administrative, operational or reference requirements. The retention time period indicates the minimum length of time that the record copy should be retained by the district before disposal can take place. A retention period is always specified for the record copy and may also be specified in some cases for duplicate copies for records that are widely distributed throughout an organization. If no retention period is specified for duplicate copies of a particular type of record, the district may dispose of these duplicates in accordance with the following guidelines:
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DUPLICATE COPIES CREATED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE PURPOSES DUPLICATE COPIES CREATED FOR CONVENIENCE OR REFERENCE Duplicate copies should not be retained longer than the record copy. CRS 6-17-104 provides a default retention period of three years for records that state law requires to be retained when no retention period is otherwise specified.
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The retention period specified in these schedules applies to the information contained within the record, regardless of the physical format of the record (paper, microfilm, computer disk or tape, optical disk, etc.).
Guidelines for identification and handling of some non-records are discussed in Appendix A – Non-Records.
2008 Colorado Special Districts Records Retention Schedule Main Page