CoSN Details Changes to E-Mail Regulations, Calls for 'Comprehensive Solution'
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What's the difference between Open Records and eDiscovery? With changes in Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, what does e-mail compliance mean these days, and how do schools achieve it? The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), an education technology advocacy group, is attempting to answer these questions with a new white paper called "School Districts, Data Retention and Federal eDiscovery Rules: The Case for a Full E-mail Archiving Solution Now."
According to Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN, "E-mail has transformed the way we all communicate--educators, schools and school districts included. Because much information is shared electronically and federal laws and judicial interpretations are including electronic communication as subject to legal discovery, it has become increasingly important for schools to make e-mail archiving a critical part of their record-keeping activities."
Beyond regulatory compliance, e-mail archiving has also been cited as a critical component of disaster planning and recovery.
The white paper details some of the issues involved in e-mail compliance for schools--including background information about eDiscovery--and also provides exemplar case studies on districts that are complying with new regulations, including information about hosted and housed solutions for managing archiving.
The paper also calls for a comprehensive solution that would allow school administrators to know for certain that they're complying with the law.
Said Jeff Patterson, a member of the task force that developed the white paper, "While we provide case studies in the paper illustrating how some school districts are complying with new regulations, what is really needed is a comprehensive e-mail archiving solution or protocol to help educators ensure that they are operating in compliance with the law. Schools want to be compliant but many educators are unsure of the right steps to take. National leadership is needed on this issue and therefore it is important that CoSN, as the leading voice for district technology leaders, is urging action and educating on this critical issue."
Members of CoSN have access to the full report as part of their membership. An executive summary of the white paper is available for all at CoSN's site here. (A PDF of the executive summary can be accessed directly here.)
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About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at [email protected].
Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at [email protected].