FILE: EFD
DATA PROTECTION AND RECOVERY
The Rapides Parish School Board recognizes the importance of maintaining and protecting computer hardware and software, including necessary equipment and supplies to maintain computer operations in the event of a disaster. The School Board shall authorize the Superintendent and/or his/her designee to maintain appropriate regulations and procedures for the proper usage of School Board owned or leased computer equipment and the protection of electronic media, applications, and stored user data.
Such regulations and procedures shall assure that:
Disaster recovery personnel have been identified to oversee computer operations disaster planning and recovery efforts with a clear delineation of responsibilities.
Critical activities for maintaining computer operations are performed, including the backing up of critical data at regular intervals.
Actions to be taken before, during, and after an occurrence, undesirable event, or disaster are developed, defined, and continuously monitored in order to restore critical functions and reestablish normal operations.
BACKUP AND STORAGE OF INFORMATION
Important and/or critical data as defined by the Rapides Parish Technology Plan includes the following file types:
Word processor, spread sheet, and presentation files used in educational or administrative applications necessary to perform job description duties for the Rapides Parish School Board
Database files used for educational or administrative purposes
Browser bookmark or favorites; e-mail lists
Picture/movie files such as (.bmp, .jpeg, .jpg, .tiff, .mpeg, .wav, .mp3, etc.) will not be backed up unless special circumstances arise. Permission must be directed to the Technology Department to request backup of these file types.
Backup
The preservation of computer files and data is critical to the continued operations of the School Board. Backup of all important and/or critical computer data shall be handled in accordance with the standard procedure outlined by the Technology Department. Exceptions to the standard procedure may be permitted when justified. Any exceptions must be fully documented. The standard procedure for systems backup shall be as follows:
All student records in the student information system, including special education records, are backed up nightly to offsite storage.
Accounting (Payroll, General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Purchasing, etc.) records are backed up daily by the hosting software vendor to off-site backup locations and disaster recovery off-site backup locations.
Google Apps for Education (all email, drive storage, calendars, and contacts are backed up by a third-party company to cloud storage).
Student, teacher, and administration files are the responsibility of the individual to back up:
The district recommends backing up to the individual’s Google Drive. This location is backed up continuously throughout the day.
All servers not managed by a third party are backed up daily to the central office backup server Monday through Friday. Servers are then backed up on weekends to offsite and archival cloud storage.
Restoration of Files
Active files that are accidentally damaged or deleted can normally be restored from backup within one working day provided the central office is notified in a timely manner. Files can only be restored to the state they were in at the time the most recent relevant backup was taken.
Accounting systems can be activated under the Disaster Recovery plan established with the software vendor in a timeline established by the software vendor.
Adopted: December 3, 2019
Recoded from EFE: January 7, 2020
Ref: Board minutes, 12-3-19, 1-7-20
Rapides Parish School Board