Data Retention Policy

In alignment with District Board Policy 3580 (District Records), the Information Services Department will be performing a scheduled data purge on January 29th, 2027. From that point forward, we will annually repeat this process at the end of January for any Google emails & Drive documents older than 4 years.

This process supports our Board Policy compliance and reflects our ongoing commitment to data security, privacy, and efficient storage management. Please review the details below to understand how this may affect your digital workspace.

Action Required

Please take time between now and January 29th to review your oldest files and emails. Ensure that any long-term institutional knowledge is moved to a district Shared Drive or archived locally.

If your department would like to create a Google Shared Drive or if you have questions regarding the technical process of moving files, please submit an Incident IQ support request here, and a member of your site Teacher Technology Leader and/or District Information Services staff can assist you.

What is Being Purged?

All individual Google emails and Google Drive documents that have a last modified date older than 4 years (from January 29) will be permanently removed.

What is Excluded?

• Google Shared Drives: Any documents or files stored within a district-created Shared Drive will be excluded from this data purge.
• Recent Files: Any data last modified within the last 4 years remains unaffected.

Note: If you have critical documents in your personal "My Drive" that are older than 4 years, we strongly recommend moving them to a designated Google Shared Drive or downloading/archiving them locally to ensure they are preserved.

How to Identify Data Older Than 4 Years

Staff can easily identify which emails and files fall into the purge window using built-in search filters:

• In Gmail: Type before:2023-01-01 into the search bar at the top of Gmail to view all emails older than 4 years.
• In Google Drive: Click the search options icon in the Drive search bar, set the Location to "My Drive" (since Shared Drives are excluded), and filter by Date Modified > Custom to enter dates before 4 years ago.

Options for Saving & Archiving Data

Please review the options below to preserve important institutional knowledge or files you need to retain:

1 - Move Files to a Google Shared Drive (Recommended for District/Department Data) 

• Items stored in a district Shared Drive are completely exempt from the annual purge. This is the preferred method for maintaining departmental records, templates, curriculum resources, and institutional knowledge. Select the file(s) or folder(s) in your My Drive. Click Move (or drag and drop) to transfer them into the appropriate Shared Drive. If your department needs a Google Shared Drive created, please submit an Incident IQ support request here (use category Software → Request Google Shared Drive).

2 - Save Emails as PDF

• Individual Emails: Open the email, click the printer icon, and select Save as PDF (brief YouTube tutorial).
• Batch Emails: Use the "Save Emails from Gmail as PDF" Chrome extension to convert multiple emails at once. This extension must be enabled by the staff member first (Google tutorial on this process)

3 - Download Drive Files to Local Storage

• Select individual files or folders in Google Drive, click the three-dot icon (or right-click), and select Download to save copies to your computer's local drive or external storage.
• Note: Staff are responsible for locally downloaded files. The district will not preserve data stored outside of Google Workspace during hardware refreshes or transitions.

Thank you for your cooperation in advance on this annual digital compliance matter.
​​​- EMUHSD Information Services Department