August 19, 2024 | Blog, Personnel

Don’t Forget to Document!

Don't Forget to Document!

by Emma Huff

A new school year is a great time to reset, build on last year’s success, and reflect on areas ripe for improvement. In the excitement of beginning the 2024-2025 school year, please keep in mind the importance of instituting best practices when it comes to documenting interactions with personnel and students alike. Proper documentation procedures are certain to prove invaluable throughout this school year and beyond.

Documentation Basics

Documentation is necessary for proper personnel management, to support adverse personnel actions, proof of compliance with applicable regulations, to support student discipline decisions, and for the successful defense of lawsuits. Documentation improves employee performance, prevents later denials of notice, aids memory, minimizes misunderstanding, and supports successive supervisors. A basic documentation system consists of oral directives, notes to the file, specific event memos, conference summary memos, and reprimands.

An oral directive is a verbal order. While oral directives are fast, easy, and usually sufficient to correct common, nonrecurring problems, their informality greatly limits their usefulness in any later investigation. If a problem is recurring, or if oral directives are insufficient, notes to the relevant student or employee file are particularly helpful. These notes function to aid in recalling specific dates and facts for use in later conversations, memos, and investigations.

If a conference with an employee is necessary to resolve a persistent performance issue, a conference summary should be prepared. This memorandum is composed using notes from the conference and should be kept in the employee’s file. The conference summary should be written directly after the meeting is held, and the employee should sign it to evidence his or her receipt and understanding. It is also important to ensure that at least one witness who acts in a supervisory capacity over the employee is present during the conference.

Finally, specific event memos are appropriate to address specific instances of employee misconduct. These are given to an employee as documentation that behavior rises to the level of more than a verbal warning and to demand compliance with applicable rules. Similarly, written reprimands are appropriate to address continual or serious violations of policy and may include a remediation component.

Tips for Proper Documentation

The sooner you begin documentation of issues, the better. We recommend setting clear, unequivocal expectations for students and personnel alike at the beginning of the school year. Document these expectations, and if they are not met, document each instance of misconduct and the consequences imposed. You will likely find that it is much easier to impose clear standards early on in the employment or student relationship than to try to remedy the effects of a lax attitude towards enforcement later on.

To create useful and reliable documentation, it is imperative to keep quality notes. All documentation should contain the date on which it was created and the dates on which the events it discusses occurred. The document should also be signed by the individual who created it and contain a statement of that individual’s findings of fact. If the documentation is a memorandum prepared in response to employee misconduct, a clear directive for future conduct should be included along with an invitation for the employee to respond in writing if the employee disagrees with any information contained in the document. Finally, the document should include a dated acknowledgment of receipt by the employee.

Quality documentation is timely, accurate, and specific. Only prepare documentation after the conference or event you wish to document has occurred. Be sure to avoid the use of impassioned or emotional language, as well as any technical jargon which may not be understood by later readers. Using correct spelling and grammar, recite the facts of the matter first, state any conclusions, then include future directives.

Recording

Audio and visual recordings also fall under the vast umbrella of documentation and merit special consideration. Texas recording law stipulates that it is a one-party consent state, meaning that it is a criminal offense to use any device to record or share communications, whether they are wire, oral or electronic, without the consent of at least one person taking part in the communication. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 16.02. This means that in Texas, one is legally allowed to record a conversation if that person is a contributor or has prior consent from one of the involved parties, barring any criminal intentions. See id. It is also lawful to record electronic communications that are easily available to the public. Tex. Penal Code Ann. See id.

As applied to Texas schools, this means that any employee, parent, or student may give lawful consent to record their own conversation with an administrator without that administrator’s knowledge. Further, any nonparticipating individual who is merely present for a conversation between an administrator and any of the aforementioned parties may lawfully record the conversation if it occurs in a public setting. The same is also true if a nonparticipating individual records a private conversation with the permission of only one of the parties to the conversation. Considering this application, the best practice for approaching conversations with staff, students, or parents is to always proceed as if you are being recorded.

We wish you an outstanding 2024-2025 school year. As always, if you have any additional questions regarding documentation and recording, please do not hesitate to contact the attorneys at Leasor Crass PC.

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