We get lots of questions every week from local governments curious about when the revisions to the local retention schedules will be complete. Here is a little bit of information on the approval process and the current status of all local government schedules.

The approval process:

1. Under the direction of the State Records Administrator, TSLAC Government Information Analysts revise the schedules.
2. A TSLAC Government Information Analyst presents the schedule to our agency’s Commission for review.
3. If no changes are needed or requested, the schedule is approved to go into the Texas Register for public comment.
4. If significant changes or additional research is needed after the Commission’s initial review, the schedule is presented to the Commission again at the next scheduled meeting. All issues must be resolved before being posted into the Texas Register.
5. If public comments are made while the schedule is in the Texas Register, all issues must be addressed. If significant changes are made, the schedule will need to be presented to the Commission again for approval at the next scheduled meeting. This process may continue until all comments and changes are resolved.
6. Once the schedule has passed through the Texas Register, it returns for final approval to TSLAC Commission.
7. After the Commission’s final approval, the schedule returns to the Texas Register for a final 20-day viewing period before becoming an official administrative rule in the Texas Administrative Code.

Or, for a visual desciption of this process:

What’s the latest?

Local Schedules SD (Records of Public School Districts) and JC (Records of Public Junior Colleges) went into the Texas Register for public comment for 30 days ending June 7, 2010. Because no public comments were made, the State Library’s Commission approved these two schedules at the Commission meeting on June 7th. The schedules will be posted sometime in August for the 20-day viewing period before they become a part of the Texas Administrative Code.

Also in August, Local Schedules CC (Records of County Clerk), DC (Records of District Clerks), GR (Records Common to All Local Governments), LC (Justice and Municipal Courts), PS (Records of Public Safety Agencies), and PW (Records of Public Works and Services) will be posted in the Texas Register for a 30 day period for public comment.

At the October Commission meeting, the remaining schedules —  EL (Records of Elections and Voter Registration), HR (Records of  Public Health Agencies), TX (Records of Property Taxation), and UT (Records of Utility Services)  — will be presented to the Commission for approval. Depending upon the public comments made in the Texas Register, we hope to be able to present the CC, DC, GR, LC, PS, and PW schedules for final Commission approval at this meeting as well.

Stay tuned for more updates as the schedules move through this revision process.