YOUR ALLY
Public Records on Your Personal Device? Your Rights and Obligations by Law
M BY PAUL TAPP ATPE Managing Attorney
ost educators have a mobile device, such on an ongoing basis. You need to be aware you are as a smartphone or tablet, and they often legally considered a “temporary custodian” of any use their device for work-related tasks, public records you may possess and have duties to including communicating with co-workers, super- maintain those records. visors, or parents about work issues. While your disThis set of responsibilities, set forth in §552.004 trict may allow or even expect you to use your own of the Texas Government Code, requires public device in the course of performing your duties, you employees possessing public information on a prineed to know about the law that makes government vate device to: employees—including school employees—respon• Preserve that information in its original form in sible for maintaining these work-related communia backup and on the privately owned device; or cations, even when using a personal device. There • Forward or transfer the public information to are potential penalties for noncompliance because the district to be preserved on their server. a school employee’s work-related communications The law requires that a person retain (i.e., not deare commonly considered a “public record.” lete) the information, even after they leave a district, School districts and their unless they forward it to employees have always the district’s public inforWHILE YOUR PHONE IS YOUR been subject to the Texas mation officer. When the PERSONAL PROPERTY, YOU HAVE information is requestPublic Information Act. The Public Information ed of you, you have 10 NO RIGHT TO KEEP PRIVATE Act, the common name days to forward it, or you ANY PUBLIC INFORMATION for Chapter 552 of the could be subject to penYOU HAVE CREATED OR Texas Government Code, alties. This duty to keep RECEIVED JUST BECAUSE IT IS gives the public the right the information lasts for to access information however long the district ON YOUR PRIVATE DEVICE. about public business, inwould have retained the cluding public education. information if it were on The Texas Attorney General’s Office has ruled that the district’s system. That length of time is set in loinformation that is a public record remains a public cal policy. record regardless of where it is stored. This means Examples of public records you may already have districts and district employees have an obligation to and need to maintain or transfer: maintain and, subject to specific exceptions, quickly • Work-related communications, such as emails share records in response to a request. While your and texts. phone is your personal property, and your private • Downloaded or created documents related to information remains private, you have no right as your work. a current or former public school employee to keep • Social media posts if the content is workprivate any public information you have created or related. received just because it is on your private device. Existing law establishes that public school emThe evolution of the use of personal technology ployees can be required to turn over work-related has meant districts must produce records even if content on their personal devices and requires the they were created or stored on personally owned employee to either forward the content to the disdevices. You may have already been asked to for- trict or keep it themselves. The law does not provide ward any communication, such as texts—related many details, though, such as how long a district to a student, class, etc.—that you stored on your must keep records or specify how an employee goes device, or you may know someone who has been. about forwarding records to their district. In the You also may have received guidance about main- absence of directions, you should seek clarification taining or sharing these records with the district continued on page 31 ATPE NEWS 11
