[OAC 5101-9-21]

[OAC 5101-9-211]

All county agency records must be placed on retention schedules that are reviewed and approved by the county records commission pursuant to ORC Section 149.38. Each retention schedule establishes a retention period for the record series it addresses and denotes the type of disposition to be made of the material when the retention period expires. Retention periods are assigned based upon the fiscal, legal, or administrative value of each record series and must conform to any minimum retention requirements specified by applicable state and federal regulations.

Financial, programmatic, statistical, and recipient records and supporting documents must be retained for a minimum of three years. The minimum retention period for public assistance records depends upon whether the assistance group is active or inactive. ODJFS requires inactive assistance group records to be held for a minimum of three years after the group has become inactive. For active assistance groups, or assistance groups that have been inactive for less than three years, ODJFS requires a minimum retention period of seven years for documentation, including old application/reapplication forms and monthly reporting forms which were obtained for the assistance group record.

For active assistance groups, some documents which are over seven years old cannot be destroyed and must be held until at least three years after the assistance group has become inactive. These documents include: enumeration verifications; the application form and verifications which established initial program eligibility; and documents which establish eligibility factors such as work history of the principal wage earner, incapacity, limiting physical factor, and SSI eligibility.

For both active and inactive assistance groups, instructions governing the retention of food stamp records are located in Section 1100 of the Food Stamp Certification Handbook (FSCH) and should be followed in conjunction with the above guidance.

Counties that wish to selectively destroy documents from public assistance group records in accordance with the above guidance must specify the retention periods of the affected documents on the appropriate retention schedules.

Records under federal or state fiscal audit, administrative review, or involved in any claims or expenditures which have been questioned must be maintained until clearance has been given. Upon the initiation of any federal or state audit, the county agency will secure from the auditors written notice of the specific records under audit. The county will maintain a current file of all records undergoing federal or state audit and will refer to that file prior to requesting approval to destroy any case record. The county shall not request approval to destroy any case record undergoing federal or state audit until it secures written notice from the federal or state auditors that the audit is cleared and the claim settled.