The Director of Schools shall maintain all school system records required by law, regulation and board policy. Any citizen of Tennessee, state official or other authorized person shall be permitted, upon written request, at a reasonable time, to inspect all records maintained by the school district unless otherwise prohibited by law, regulation or board policy. A person who has the right to inspect a record may request and receive copies of the documents subject to the payment of reasonable cost.

The names of persons inspecting records and the date of inspection shall be recorded. 

No records pertaining to individual students will be released for inspection by the public or any unauthorized persons except for those records considered to be directory information. 

The Director of Schools shall retain and dispose of school district records in accordance with the following guidelines:

1. The Director of Schools will determine if a particular record is of permanent or temporary value in accordance with regulations promulgated by County Public Records Commission and the Tennessee Institute for Public Services records manual;
2. Temporary value records which have been kept beyond the required time may be recommended to the Public Records Commission for destruction;
3. The records that the State Librarian and Archivist desire to preserve in their facilities will be transferred to the State Library and Archives. The temporary value records rejected by the State Library and Archives may be transferred to another institution or destroyed;
4. Permanent records will be kept in some usable form. If the Director of Schools desires to destroy the original permanent record, these records must be reproduced by microfilming or some other permanent reproduction method. Permission to destroy any original digital permanent record after microfilming follows the same procedure noted above for temporary records.
5. The Director of Schools shall establish procedures to safeguard against the unlawful destruction or removal of records.
6. Intentional misuse of Criminal History Record Information (CHRI) is not permitted and all allegations of same will be investigated.  Use of CHRI for any purpose other than what is allowed by federal or state law is misuse.  If misuse is discovered through an investigation, appropriate action will be taken.  Additionally, misuse of CHRI shall be reported to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. 

Legal References:  

1. T.C.A. § 49-2-301(f). 
2. T.C.A. § 10-7-504. 
3. T.C.A. § 10-7-506. 
4. T.C.A. § 49-2-104. 
5. T.C.A. § 10-7-401. 
6. T.C.A. § 10-7-406. 
7. T.C.A. § 10-7-404. 
8. T.C.A. § 10-7-413. 
9. T.C.A. § 10-7-414. 

Approved as to Legal Form 
By Knox County Law Director 1/11/2024 
/Gary T. Dupler/Deputy Law Director