The Secretary of State has assigned the California Records and Information Management (CalRIM) program the task of approving Records Retention Schedules (STD. 73).
When a Retention Schedule is approved, the State agency is authorized—for a five-year period—to dispose of the records listed on that schedule as long as they are not marked with “Notify Archives.” No further approval for disposition is necessary unless the information on the Retention Schedule is changed. If the records, retention periods, or other information on the Schedule have changed, the Schedule must be revised or amended to reflect the changes.
A Retention Schedule’s approval number expires after five years. When the five years have elapsed, the Retention Schedule is considered expired and must be revised. If a Retention Schedule has expired, the State agency will not be permitted to transfer records from that schedule to the State Records Center (SRC) until the schedule is revised.
Retention Schedule Approval Procedure
Approval Number Assigned
The CalRIM Analyst will assign a new approval number to new and revised schedules. Each approval number is unique. It includes the year it was created or revised (i.e., 2020, 2021), followed by a dash (-) and a three-digit number that states which numbered schedule it is for the given year (i.e., 001, 002). No two Retention Schedules have the same approval number, though several schedules may have the same schedule number. The approval number is the easiest means to identify a specific schedule.
Amendments to previous schedules retain the same approval number as the previous schedule, followed by either “A1,” “A2,” “A3,” depending on how many amendments there are for the schedule.
Approval Date Assigned and Expiration Date Set
The approval date is the day in which the CalRIM Analyst approved and signed the schedule. If a schedule is being amended, the approval date will remain the same as on the previous schedule. If it is new or a revision to a previous schedule, the expiration date will be exactly five years from the approval date.
For example, if a revised schedule was approved on January 31, 2018, that approval number will expire on January 31, 2023.
State Records Appraisal Program (SRAP) Archivist Approval
After an analyst on the CalRIM team has accepted all edits, an archivist in the State Records Appraisal Program (SRAP) will review the Retention Schedule next, looking for any records series with potential historical value.
The reviewing archivist will identify records series that appear to have historical or research value with the statement “Notify Archives.” If a records series is identified, when it reaches the end of its retention period, the RMC must notify the State Archives and arrange for the transfer of the records to the State Archives.
When a record series is identified, it does not necessarily mean the records will go to the State Archives at the end of their retention. The “Notify Archives” tag indicates that archivists may be interested in the records and will want to inspect them further before the records are disposed of.
Once the SRAP Archivist has reviewed the Retention Schedule and identified any records series of potential historical interest, they will then sign and approve the schedule. A copy of the Retention Schedule will be emailed to the State agency’s RMC, as well as being uploaded to Athena where it will be available to the public. A paper copy will also be sent to the RMC in the mail.
In addition to the paper Retention Schedule, the Archivist will also mail the RMC a sample of the Archives Identification Label. These labels are intended to be placed on any boxes or storage containers which hold potential archival material.
