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Legal compliance isn't usually the most exciting topic in a school building - but at K12 Montana, it's one we take seriously on behalf of every district we support. When it comes to records retention, especially email, getting it wrong can put a district in real trouble.
The Starting Point: Schedule 7
Montana's guidelines for local government and school records retention are published in Schedule 7 by the Montana Secretary of State's office. This document defines how long different types of records need to be kept before they can be legally destroyed.
What Does This Mean for Email?
Schedule 7 doesn't say "keep emails for X years" in a simple table. The retention period depends on what the email is about. Most districts, working with their attorneys, interpret the guidelines to mean that general staff correspondence should be retained for approximately three years.
Board decisions, policy decisions, and other official records are supposed to be retained indefinitely - but those should be in board minutes, not email.
K12 Montana Is Not Your Attorney
This is worth repeating clearly: K12 Montana can configure your Google Vault retention settings to match whatever policy your district adopts, but we cannot give legal advice. Work with your district's legal counsel to determine what your retention policy should be, adopt it formally, and then communicate it to us in writing so we can set it up technically.
The Technical Piece: Google Vault
Google Vault is the compliance and archiving tool included with certain Google Workspace plans. When configured with a retention rule, it automatically holds onto email for the defined period and then purges it when the period expires. It also protects emails from being deleted early, even if a user tries to clean out their inbox.
Want help configuring Google Vault for your district's retention policy? Contact K12 Montana Inc. We'll work with your policy decision to make sure the technical implementation is correct.