Article I. EducateONE Organizational Policies
Chapter 11. Corporate Records, Minutes, Reports, and Inspection Rights
EducateONE Organizational Policy § 11.6.00. Records Retention and Destruction.
(a) Purpose.
(1) In order to preserve EducateONE’s tax-exempt status, legal compliance, corporate integrity, financial accountability, and institutional flexibility, this policy establishes minimum limits on premature destruction of records and preserves EducateONE’s authority to destroy records when retention is no longer required by law, records hold, contract, grant condition, donor restriction, accreditation requirement, insurance requirement, institutional policy, or other binding obligation.
(2) This policy is intended to prevent unlawful, premature, improper, or misleading destruction of records.
(3) This policy is not intended to require permanent retention of records unless permanent retention is required by this policy or another binding requirement.
(b) Scope.
(1) This policy applies to records of EducateONE and any controlled EducateONE institution, school, program, service, activity, or operation, except where a more specific policy applies.
(2) This policy applies to records in any format, including paper records, electronic records, email, messages, databases, cloud files, scans, images, audio, video, metadata, backups, and records maintained through third-party systems.
(3) Student, child, learner, participant, academic, enrollment, attendance, assessment, disciplinary, health, safety, service, accommodation, financial-aid, and related educational records shall be governed by applicable school-specific, institution-specific, program-specific, jurisdiction-specific, or legally required record policies or schedules.
(c) General Prohibition on Premature Destruction.
(1) EducateONE shall not knowingly destroy, delete, alter, conceal, falsify, or fail to preserve a record before the applicable minimum retention period has expired.
(2) EducateONE shall not destroy a record if destruction is prohibited by:
(A) applicable law;
(B) a records hold;
(C) a pending or reasonably anticipated audit, investigation, litigation, claim, demand, subpoena, government inquiry, regulatory review, IRS inquiry, accreditation review, donor dispute, or insurance matter;
(D) a contract, grant condition, donor restriction, accreditation requirement, insurance requirement, institutional policy, or other binding obligation; or
(E) a Board directive or written instruction from an authorized officer.
(3) After the applicable minimum retention period has expired, EducateONE may destroy records in any lawful manner unless continued retention is required under paragraph (2).
(d) Records Hold.
(1) EducateONE shall not destroy, delete, alter, conceal, or fail to preserve records that are subject to a records hold.
(2) A records hold applies when EducateONE knows or reasonably should know that records may be relevant to:
(A) litigation;
(B) a threatened or reasonably anticipated claim;
(C) an IRS inquiry or tax examination;
(D) a government investigation or regulatory review;
(E) an audit;
(F) an accreditation review;
(G) a subpoena, document request, or legal demand;
(H) a donor, grant, contract, insurance, employment, student, or institutional dispute; or
(I) another matter requiring preservation by law or binding obligation.
(3) A records hold remains in effect until released by the Board of Directors, Executive Director, legal counsel, or another authorized person.
(e) Minimum Retention Periods.
(1) EducateONE shall not destroy the following records before the applicable minimum retention period has expired:
(A) Articles of incorporation, bylaws, amendments, corporate registrations, corporate status records, IRS exemption application materials, IRS determination letters, Board minutes, Board resolutions, member records if any, and final corporate governance records: permanent.
(B) Form 990, Form 990-EZ, Form 990-N confirmations, Form 199, RRF-1, and comparable annual tax-exempt, charitable-registration, or public-reporting filings: seven years after filing or due date, whichever is later.
(C) General accounting records, books of account, receipts, invoices, deposits, bank statements, reconciliations, expense records, donor acknowledgments, contribution records, financial statements, and records supporting tax, charitable, or public-reporting filings: seven years after the close of the applicable fiscal year.
(D) Employment tax records: four years after the tax due date or payment date, whichever is later.
(E) Payroll records, wage records, time records, wage statements, and wage-deduction records: four years after creation, final payment, or the end of the applicable pay period, whichever is later.
(F) Personnel records, employment applications, hiring records, promotion records, discipline records, termination records, and employment referral records: four years after creation, receipt, employment action, or separation from employment, whichever is later.
(G) Form I-9 employment eligibility records: the later of three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends.
(H) Workplace injury and illness records required by occupational safety law: five years after the end of the calendar year covered by the record.
(I) Contracts, leases, memoranda of understanding, vendor agreements, service agreements, insurance policies, grant agreements, and other binding instruments: seven years after expiration, termination, final payment, final report, closeout, or final dispute resolution, whichever is later.
(J) Records of restricted gifts, donor restrictions, grant restrictions, and charitable-use restrictions: seven years after final expenditure, satisfaction of the restriction, final report, closeout, or final dispute resolution, whichever is later.
(K) Records documenting compensation, reimbursement, excess benefit transaction review, conflict-of-interest review, interested transactions, and related Board or committee action: seven years after final action, payment, reimbursement, tax year, or final dispute resolution, whichever is later.
(L) Records documenting student assistance, scholarships, educational grants, awards, discounts, waivers, or comparable assistance administered by EducateONE at the organizational level: seven years after final award, denial, payment, closeout, or last related tax, grant, or reporting year, whichever is later.
(M) Records required for private-school federal tax-exemption nondiscrimination compliance, including records of racial composition, scholarship and loan nondiscrimination evidence, solicitation materials, and admissions, program, and financial-aid materials: three years, unless a longer period applies under this policy or another binding requirement.
(N) Property records, asset records, depreciation records, title records, purchase records, sale records, and disposition records: seven years after disposition of the property and close of the final related tax, audit, insurance, or reporting year.
(O) Claims, complaints, investigations, incidents, disputes, demands, subpoenas, audit records, insurance claims, and legal matter records: seven years after final resolution, unless a longer period is required by law, records hold, insurance requirement, legal counsel, or other binding obligation.
(P) Final versions of policies, guidelines, handbooks, major manuals, and formally adopted institutional standards: permanent or until superseded plus seven years, whichever is longer.
(Q) Drafts, notes, working papers, duplicate copies, convenience copies, transitory records, routine notices, scheduling messages, spam, and informal records not otherwise covered by this policy: when no longer useful, unless subject to a records hold or other binding retention requirement.
(f) Longer Applicable Period Controls.
(1) If more than one retention period applies to a record, EducateONE shall not destroy the record before the longest applicable period has expired.
(2) If applicable law, contract, grant condition, donor restriction, accreditation requirement, insurance requirement, institutional policy, legal counsel instruction, or Board directive requires a longer period than this policy, EducateONE shall follow the longer period.
(g) No Required Retention Beyond Applicable Period.
(1) Nothing in this policy requires EducateONE to retain records after the applicable retention period has expired unless continued retention is required by law, records hold, contract, grant condition, donor restriction, accreditation requirement, insurance requirement, institutional policy, operational need, legal counsel instruction, Board directive, or other binding obligation.
(2) The expiration of a retention period authorizes, but does not require, destruction of records.
(3) EducateONE may determine the method, timing, format, system, and procedure for lawful record destruction.
(h) Electronic Records.
(1) EducateONE shall not destroy, delete, overwrite, migrate, convert, or alter electronic records in a manner that prevents required retention, public inspection, audit review, legal preservation, or production when such retention, inspection, review, preservation, or production is required by law or binding obligation.
(2) EducateONE may use any lawful electronic record system, cloud system, database, backup process, archive method, conversion method, or storage format unless prohibited by law or binding obligation.
(i) Public Inspection Records.
(1) EducateONE shall not destroy records required to be made available for public inspection before the applicable public-inspection period has expired.
(2) EducateONE shall not destroy records required to support its recognition or maintenance of tax-exempt status before the applicable retention period has expired.
(j) Relationship to School and Institution Records.
(1) This policy does not establish a complete student-record, child-record, pupil-record, special-education-record, health-record, public-school-record, preschool-record, university-record, or jurisdiction-specific education-record schedule.
(2) Such records shall be governed by applicable law and any school-specific, institution-specific, program-specific, jurisdiction-specific, accreditation-specific, or funding-specific policy or schedule.
(3) EducateONE shall not destroy such records before the applicable school-specific, institution-specific, program-specific, jurisdiction-specific, accreditation-specific, funding-specific, or legally required retention period has expired.
(k) Responsibility.
(1) The Executive Director or designee may administer this policy.
(2) The Board of Directors may direct retention or destruction of corporate governance records, Board records, committee records, tax-exemption records, and other records within the Board’s authority.
(3) A person who is uncertain whether a record may be destroyed shall not destroy the record until the question is resolved by the Executive Director, legal counsel, the Board of Directors, or another authorized person.
(l) Interpretation.
(1) This policy shall be interpreted to prevent unlawful, premature, improper, or misleading destruction of records while preserving EducateONE’s maximum lawful discretion to determine how records are created, stored, retained, classified, converted, archived, migrated, and destroyed.
(2) This policy shall not be interpreted to require EducateONE to maintain records permanently unless permanent retention is expressly required by this policy or another binding requirement.
(3) If any provision of this policy is determined to be inconsistent with applicable law, the provision shall be interpreted or limited to the extent necessary to comply with law while preserving the maximum lawful discretion of EducateONE.
Source Note
This policy was developed for EducateONE to establish minimum records-retention and destruction limits while preserving organizational flexibility. The structure, numbering, source-note placement, and drafting approach follow EducateONE Organizational Guideline § 15.4.01. Policy Layout Standard and Style Guide. The policy is written primarily as a prohibition against premature or improper destruction of records, rather than as a comprehensive operational records-management procedure. Student-record details are intentionally reserved for school-specific, institution-specific, program-specific, jurisdiction-specific, accreditation-specific, and funding-specific policies.
References
Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3).
Internal Revenue Code section 6001.
Internal Revenue Code section 6104.
Internal Revenue Code section 6501.
Internal Revenue Code section 4958.
Treasury Regulation section 1.6001-1.
Treasury Regulation section 301.6104(d)-1.
Revenue Procedure 75-50.
IRS Form 1023 Instructions.
IRS Form 990 Instructions.
California Corporations Code section 6320.
California Corporations Code section 6333.
California Government Code section 12946.
California Labor Code section 226.
California Labor Code section 1174.
8 C.F.R. section 274a.2.
29 C.F.R. section 1904.33.
EducateONE Organizational Guideline § 15.4.01. Policy Layout Standard and Style Guide.
