Hi Meghan,
Based on your statement:



*"In most cases, we do not request medical records from any student,
parent/guardian, or outside school district, but in some cases when the
students records arrive for assessment and consultation purposes with our
outreach staff, the medical files arrive as well."*

My first reaction is that you should not retain any kind of records that
you do not need to perform your services - only create/accept and retain
records that are required/used in your organization's role.  By accepting
unnecessary records you increase your organization's liability, space, time
and security requirements.  You may need to create a
policy/procedure/standard that makes it clear what types of records you
want/need and avoid anything else by returning the documents to the
originator or deleting/destroying - whichever is most appropriate.

My gut tells me that creating and/or following an established policy on the
creation/acquisition of records may be your first step. As the Digital
Archivist you may think you have no other choice but to "file/retain" these
records that have already been received.  However, you may have other
options.  I encourage you to discuss this with your management and legal
advisors.  (I am assuming that these medical records were created by
another entity and are being retained by them according to the appropriate
laws/regulations for that business purpose -  unless you have accepted the
responsibility for these medical records through a legal agreement or
contract.)

If in the end, if you do need to retain these medical records then you will
need to follow the retention requirements of your jurisdiction(s).

Mary

Mary W. Haider, MBA, CRM
Records & Information Manager and Consultant
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865-983-1371

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