The 2027 retention schedule revision lands 1 January
The Clearwater State Archives has published the 2027 General Retention Schedule, effective 1 January. It is the first substantive revision since 2022.
What changes
GRS 200 — financial. Purchase orders and invoices consolidate into a single seven-year series. Several municipalities have been keeping these under two different retention periods and reconciling them by hand; that stops.
GRS 400 — licensing. Animal and business licences move from three years to five, aligning with the appeal window. Short-term rental registrations get their own series for the first time.
New: GRS 620, body-worn camera footage. 90 days routine, three years where associated with a use-of-force report or a complaint, permanent where associated with a criminal case that goes to trial. Roughly thirty Clearwater municipalities have been retaining this under local policy in the absence of a state series, mostly for longer than 620 requires.
What you need to do
Nothing before 1 January, and nothing hasty after it. A record already scheduled for destruction under the 2022 schedule may be destroyed under it. The revision is not retroactive and you do not need to re-analyse your backlog.
What you do need is your local schedule reconciled to the new series numbers before your next disposition run.
What we are doing
A crosswalk from the 2022 series numbers to the 2027 ones goes into the member library in mid-November, and the State Archives walks through it live on 19 November.
Members who reconciled after 2022 will recognise the format — Harriet Nowicki built that one and has built this one.