7540.05 - EDUCATIONAL SERVICE CENTER-ISSUED STAFF E-MAIL ACCOUNT

The Governing Board is committed to the effective use of electronic mail ("e-mail") by all ESC staff and Governing Board members in the conduct of their official duties. This policy and any corresponding guidelines are intended to establish a framework for the proper use of e-mail for conducting official business and communicating with colleagues, students, parents, and community members.

When available, the ESC's e-mail system must be used by employees for any ESC e-mail communications. Personal e-mail accounts on providers other than the ESC's e-mail system may be blocked at any time due to concerns for network security, SPAM, or virus protection. Furthermore, ESC staff are expected to exercise reasonable judgment and prudence and take appropriate precautions to prevent viruses from entering the ESC's network when opening or forwarding any e-mails or attachments to e-mails that originate from unknown sources.

ESC staff shall not send or forward mass e-mails, even if the e-mails concern ESC business, without prior approval of the Technology Director and Superintendent.

ESC staff may join list servs or other e-mail services (e.g., RSS feeds) that pertain to their responsibilities in the ESC, provided these list servs or other e-mail services do not exceed the staff member's e-mail storage allotment. Staff members are required to keep their inbox and folders organized by regularly reviewing e-mail messages, appropriately saving e-mails that constitute a public record or student record and e-mails that are subject to a Litigation Hold, and purging all other e-mails that have been read. If a staff member is unsure whether s/he has adequate storage or should subscribe to a list serv or RSS feed, s/he should discuss the issue with his/her Building Principal or the ESC's Technology Director. The Technology Director is authorized to block e-mail from list servs or e-mail services if the e-mails received by the staff member(s) regularly exceed (10) megabytes.

Public Records

The ESC complies with all applicable laws and regulations pertaining to electronic mail. Accordingly, e-mails written by or sent to ESC staff and Governing Board members may be public records if their content concerns ESC business, or education records if their content includes personally identifiable information about a student. E-mails that are public records are subject to retention and disclosure, upon request, in accordance with Governing Board Policy 8310 – Public Records. E-mails that are student records must be maintained pursuant to Governing Board Policy 8330 – Student Records. Finally, e-mails may constitute electronically stored information ("ESI") that may be subject to a litigation hold pursuant to Policy 8315 – Information Management.

Applicable laws and regulations exempt certain documents and information within documents from disclosure, no matter what their form. Therefore, certain e-mails may be exempt from disclosure or it may be necessary to redact certain content in the e-mails before the e-mails are released pursuant to a public records request, the request of a parent or eligible student to review education records, or a duly served discovery request involving ESI.

E-mails written by or sent to ESC staff and Governing Board members by means of their private e-mail account may be public records if the content of the e-mails concerns ESC business, or education records if their content includes personally identifiable information about a student. Consequently, staff shall comply with an ESC request to produce copies of e-mail in their possession that are either public records or education records, or that constitute ESI that is subject to a litigation hold, even if such records reside on a computer owned by an individual staff member, or are accessed through an e-mail account not controlled by the ESC.

Retention

Pursuant to State and Federal law, e-mails that are public records or education records, and e-mails that are subject to a litigation hold shall be retained.

The ESC maintains archives of all e-mails sent and/or received by users of the ESC's e-mail service. Staff members are required to forward copies of any e-mails received in their personal e-mail account(s) not affiliated with the ESC server to their ESC e-mail account so that these records are also archived for future retrieval, if necessary.

Unauthorized E-mail

The Governing Board does not authorize the use of its Technology Resources, including its computer network ("network") to accept, transmit, or distribute unsolicited bulk e-mail sent through the Internet to network e-mail accounts. In addition, Internet e-mail sent, or caused to be sent, to or through the network that makes use of or contains invalid or forged headers, invalid or non-existent domain names, or other means of deceptive addressing will be deemed to be counterfeit. Any attempt to send or cause such counterfeit e-mail to be sent to or through the network is unauthorized. Similarly, e-mail that is relayed from any third party's e-mail servers without the permission of that third party, or which employs similar techniques to hide or obscure the source of the e-mail, is also an unauthorized use of the network. The Governing Board does not authorize the harvesting or collection of network e-mail addresses for the purposes of sending unsolicited e-mail. The Governing Board reserves the right to take all legal and technical steps available to prevent unsolicited bulk e-mail or other unauthorized e-mail from entering, utilizing, or remaining within the network. Nothing in this policy is intended to grant any right to transmit or send e-mail to, or through, the network. The Governing Board's failure to enforce this policy in every instance in which it might have application does not amount to a waiver of its rights.

Unauthorized use of the network in connection with the transmission of unsolicited bulk e-mail, including the transmission of counterfeit e-mail, may result in civil and criminal penalties against the sender and/or possible disciplinary action.

Authorized Use and Training

Pursuant to Governing Board Policy 7540.04, staff and Governing Board members using the ESC's e-mail system shall acknowledge their review of, and intent to comply with, the ESC's policy on acceptable use and safety by signing and submitting the appropriate form.

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