Updated November 2026 · Southern New Hampshire
School records shredding in NH for schools, daycares and tutors
This page covers how New Hampshire schools, districts, licensed daycares and tutoring centers decide what student and staff paper to keep, and how to destroy the rest under FERPA and state rules. You get the regulation sections, a summer purge plan, and costs by the box for drop-off and pickup.
99¢ per pound at our Tewksbury drop-off. Certificate of Destruction on every job.
- 99¢ per pound
- Since 2007
- BBB A+ rated
- FERPA 34 CFR Part 99 aware
Quick answer
A New Hampshire school district destroys records on the retention and disposition schedule its school board adopts under RSA 189:29-a, and it must keep a record of what was destroyed, the method and the date. FERPA (34 CFR 99.10(e)) forbids destroying any education record while a parent or eligible student has an outstanding request to inspect it, and licensed daycares keep each child’s records for 2 years after the last day of enrollment under He-C 4002.05(l).
New Hampshire Document Shredding destroys school records at 99 cents per pound at our Tewksbury drop-off, or by pickup from $129.95 transport, plus $34.90 in per-job fees, with a Certificate of Destruction for your disposal log. It is the institutional side of our document shredding service.
What New Hampshire schools, daycares and tutors actually shred
A school front office collects paper faster than almost any other workplace. Registration packets with birth certificates and proof of residency, emergency contact cards, nurse logs, attendance reports, discipline referrals, special education drafts, and staff files with background check paperwork. Every June it all has to go somewhere.
Daycares and preschools hold a smaller version of the same mix: enrollment forms with parents’ employers and phone numbers, immunization records, allergy plans, incident reports, sign-in sheets and staff files. Tutoring centers keep intake forms, progress notes, test results and payment records with card details.
The common thread is children. A child’s name, date of birth and Social Security number can sit unused for years, which is exactly what makes them attractive to an identity thief. A child’s credit file usually stays empty until someone checks it, and nobody checks a seven-year-old’s credit.
So the question is not whether to shred, but when and how. The when is set by your schedule and the law. The how should be cross-cut shredding with a chain of custody and a certificate you can file.
FERPA and destroying student records
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act lives in federal regulation at 34 CFR Part 99. It applies to an educational agency or institution that receives funds under a program run by the U.S. Department of Education, according to section 99.1. That covers public districts in New Hampshire and any private school or college that takes those funds. A private school or daycare that does not should ask its counsel whether FERPA reaches it.
What counts as an education record
Section 99.3 defines education records as records directly related to a student and maintained by the school or by a party acting for it. A teacher’s private memory-aid notes, kept only by the teacher and shown to nobody else, fall outside the definition. Everything in the cumulative folder, the nurse’s office and the guidance office is likely inside it.
The “party acting for” language matters for tutoring companies and contractors. If a district hires an outside provider and that provider keeps student records for the district, treat those records like the district’s own.
What FERPA says about destruction
Part 99 does not give you a list of years to keep each record. It does set two rules that affect the shredder. Section 99.10(e) says a school “shall not destroy any education records if there is an outstanding request to inspect and review the records.” Section 99.10(b) gives the school up to 45 days to honor such a request.
Section 99.32(a)(2) adds that the record of who requested or received a student’s information has to be kept with the student’s education records for as long as those records are kept. When the folder goes, the disclosure log goes with it, not before.
The practical rule for the records room: before any box of student files leaves the building, ask the registrar or the guidance office whether any parent or former student has a pending request for those years. If the answer is yes, those folders stay until the request is closed.
The Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office publishes the full regulation and its guidance on its FERPA page, listed in the sources below. For the wider list of household and business records and how long each one lives, see our document retention guide.
New Hampshire retention rules: the school board sets the schedule
New Hampshire does not hand every district one statewide list. RSA 189:29-a puts the job on the school board: “Members of the school board shall establish a records retention and disposition schedule for all official records of the school district.” The same section says a complete record of all records destroyed or discarded must be kept, “along with notations of the methods and dates of disposal.”
That last sentence is the one office staff forget. It means the district needs a destruction log, and each entry needs a method and a date. A Certificate of Destruction gives you both, which is why we suggest stapling it to the log entry for each purge.
| Type of program | Who sets the retention periods | What to check before you shred |
|---|---|---|
| Public school district or SAU | The school board’s schedule under RSA 189:29-a | The board-adopted schedule, open FERPA requests, legal holds |
| Chartered public school | Ask counsel which schedule applies to your school | Your board policy, plus FERPA if funded |
| Private or religious school | School policy, and FERPA if it takes ED program funds | Your written policy and counsel |
| Licensed child care program | NH child care licensing rules, He-C 4002 | He-C 4002.05 and 4002.31 minimums, plus tax rules for staff |
| Tutoring center or education company | Its own policy, and the contracting school’s rules if it holds records for a school | Your contracts and any school data agreement |
| Any employer with staff | IRS for employment tax records | Keep at least 4 years after the tax is due or paid |
We cannot tell you how many years your district keeps a transcript or a special education file, because your board decides that. If your district has not adopted a schedule recently, check with the superintendent’s office and the New Hampshire Department of Education before a large purge, and get the schedule in writing. Then build the summer purge around it.
Keep, shred or check: common school and daycare paper
Office staff ask us for a short list they can post in the records room. This one does not replace your board schedule or your licensing rules. It sorts the paper we see most often into what the law ties to a rule, what is everyday clutter, and what needs a phone call first.
| Paper | Rule that controls it | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Cumulative folders, transcripts, special education files | Your board schedule (RSA 189:29-a) and FERPA | Shred only past the schedule and with no open request |
| Record of requests and disclosures for a student | 34 CFR 99.32(a)(2) | Keep with the student’s file, destroy together |
| Daycare child file: enrollment, immunizations, allergy plan | He-C 4002.05(l) | Keep 2 years after the last day, then shred |
| Daycare sign-in sheets and attendance | He-C 4002.05(m) | Keep at least 1 year, then shred |
| Water activity and field trip permission slips | He-C 4002.31(d) | Keep 2 years after the last activity covered |
| Payroll, W-4s, wage records for staff | IRS employment tax rule | Keep at least 4 years, then shred |
| Printed rosters, copies of emergency cards, draft reports | Working copies of records kept elsewhere | Shred when the year ends, never recycle |
| Anything tied to a complaint, investigation or lawsuit | Legal hold | Ask the superintendent or counsel first |
Working copies are the biggest single category in most school purges. Teachers print class lists with birth dates, nurses print medication lists for field trips, and offices photocopy registration packets. None of them need to be kept once the year is over, and all of them identify children.
Childcare licensing records under He-C 4002
Licensed child care programs in New Hampshire follow the state licensing rules in chapter He-C 4000, published on the General Court site. Two parts matter for the shredder. He-C 4002.05(l) requires the licensee to “maintain a child’s records on file at the program or keep them readily available for 2 years after the child’s last day of enrollment.” He-C 4002.05(m) sets at least one year for staff records, staff and child attendance records, field trip permission slips, emergency drill records and monthly fire drill records.
He-C 4002.31(d) then sets a longer floor for one kind of slip: permission for water activities and off-premises field trips is kept for a minimum of 2 years after the date of the last activity it covers. When two rules touch the same paper, keep it for the longer one.
Notice the gap between the licensing floor for staff records and the IRS window for payroll. A staff file that holds W-4s and wage records should follow the 4-year IRS rule for employment tax records, even though the licensing rule only asks for one year. The health and background check pieces of the same file can follow your own policy above the licensing minimum.
What school records shredding in NH costs
Schools and daycares pay the same rates as every other customer. A standard banker’s box of paper weighs about 30 pounds. Under 10 boxes we weigh the paper at 99 cents per pound. At 10 or more boxes the flat rate is $15 per small box and $20 per banker’s box.
| Purge size | Drop-off | Pickup Zone 1 | Pickup Zone 2 | Pickup Zone 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 boxes (small daycare, about 180 lb) | $213.10 | $343.05 | $373.05 | $413.05 |
| 25 banker’s boxes (one school building) | $534.90 | $664.85 | $694.85 | $734.85 |
| 60 banker’s boxes (district records room) | $1,234.90 | $1,364.85 | $1,394.85 | $1,434.85 |
Every job adds the $14.95 HIPAA filing fee and the $19.95 environmental fee, $34.90 in total, which covers the certificate paperwork and recycling the shred. Zone 1 covers the border towns such as Salem, Pelham, Windham and Plaistow, Zone 2 greater Nashua and Manchester, and Zone 3 the Seacoast and points farther north. The exact zone is confirmed at booking. Full numbers are on the shredding rates page, and the pickup zones page lists towns by zone.
For a district, one consolidated pickup beats several small ones. Each pickup is its own job with its own transport and per-job fees, so moving boxes from the elementary schools to the central office first and booking one pickup there saves money and gives you one certificate for the board’s log.
The summer purge: a school records shredding plan for NH
Most schools purge between the last day of classes and the August return of staff. The building is quiet, the year’s files are closed, and custodians have time to move boxes. Here is the order we suggest.
- Pull the schedule Print the board-adopted retention schedule, or for a daycare the He-C 4002 minimums and your own policy. Mark the cutoff year for each record series.
- Check requests and holds Ask the registrar, guidance and special education offices for any open FERPA requests, and the business office for any legal hold. Those folders stay out of the purge.
- Box by series Keep each record series in its own boxes, labeled by series and year range. Leave staples and folders in, take out binder hardware and hanging-folder frames.
- Write the log entry List the series and years in each box. This becomes the destruction record RSA 189:29-a asks for.
- Seal and send Tape the boxes, then drive them to Tewksbury or book a pickup. Paper dropped off on a weekday is shredded the same business day.
- Close the log Add the method and date from the Certificate of Destruction to the log, attach the certificate, and file it with the board’s records.
A records purge works the same way in any office. Our post on the annual document purge walks through it for businesses and homes, if your district’s business office wants a version for its own files.
Pickup at schools: loading docks, custodians and timing
Pickup is by appointment. A driver loads your sealed boxes, they travel to our Tewksbury office, and they are shredded there after they arrive. Pricing assumes ground-level or elevator access. A school with a loading dock or a ground-floor storage room is ideal. If the records room is in a basement or a second floor without an elevator, a handling fee is quoted up front.
Pick the week early
Book once you know the box count, and leave a week or two of slack before staff return. We do not promise same-day service for pickups.
Stage the boxes
Ask custodians to move sealed boxes to one spot near the door. The driver loads faster and you avoid the stair fee.
Name one signer
One person from the office counts the boxes with the driver and signs. That name goes in your log.
Separate the media
Old drives, staff laptops and memory cards go in their own sealed bag, quoted per item.
The full routine is on our shredding pickup checklist, and the off-site shredding page explains each step of the chain of custody. A small daycare with six boxes usually does better driving to our drop-off shredding counter, which is open Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., no appointment.
Some boards want a staff member to see the records destroyed. That is what witnessed shredding is for: an appointment at our Tewksbury office at $1.99 per pound with a $100 minimum, plus the $34.90 per-job fees, with the certificate signed in front of your staff member.
Student laptops, staff computers and copier drives
Schools retire more devices than most businesses: student laptops, staff computers, old servers, document cameras with storage, and copiers that scanned every registration packet. Student data on a device is still student data.
Devices that leave the district
Before devices are sold, donated or recycled, confirm with the technology office how each one was wiped. When a drive failed or the wipe cannot be confirmed, destroy the drive. We physically destroy drives, tapes, USB sticks, phones and CDs and quote them per item through our hard drive destruction service.
Breach law and devices
New Hampshire’s notice of security breach law, RSA 359-C:19 to 359-C:21, is written around computerized data. A lost box of paper and a lost laptop are both bad days, but the device can bring statutory notice duties with it. Our page on New Hampshire data breach law explains those duties.
- Keep a list of retired devices with serial numbers and how each one was cleared or destroyed.
- Pull copier drives or get the leasing company’s written answer on wiping before a lease ends.
- Never put student folders and devices in the same box. They are destroyed and billed differently.
- File the certificate for media with the paper certificate in the same destruction log.
Tutoring centers, after-school programs and test prep
Smaller education businesses often have no records officer and no schedule at all. The paper still piles up: intake forms with a child’s school, grade and learning needs, diagnostic test results, progress reports sent home, and payment slips. A summer of SAT prep can fill two banker’s boxes on its own.
Set a simple schedule
Write down how long you keep a student file after the last session, and how long you keep payment and payroll records for taxes. The IRS general rule for business tax records is 3 years from filing, and employment tax records are kept at least 4 years. If you hold records for a school district under contract, its schedule and FERPA come first.
Purge once a year
Pick a slow month, pull every file past your cutoff, and bring the boxes in. Most tutoring centers have under ten boxes, which means paying by the pound at our drop-off counter. Two banker’s boxes, about 60 pounds in all, come to $94.30 with the per-job fees.
Putting school records shredding in NH into written policy
A schedule tells you how long to keep records. A destruction procedure tells staff how they leave the building. Districts that write both down rarely have a records room that overflows, and they have a clean answer when a parent, an auditor or the board asks what happened to old files.
What the procedure should say
Who approves a purge, how open requests and holds are checked, how boxes are labeled and logged, who signs for the pickup, and where the certificate is filed. One page is enough. Our guide to writing a records destruction policy has template sections you can adapt.
Everyday paper between purges
Not every sheet waits for summer. Copies of sign-in sheets, printed rosters, nurse’s notes after a field trip and draft reports pile up all year. A locked console or a lidded box in the main office, emptied at the summer purge, keeps them out of classroom recycling bins.
The certificate itself is a small thing that does a lot of work in a public institution. Our page on the certificate of destruction explains how long to keep it and how it pairs with an internal log.
Frequently asked questions
How long do New Hampshire schools keep student records?
Each school board sets its own records retention and disposition schedule under RSA 189:29-a, so the answer depends on your district. Check the board-adopted schedule with the superintendent’s office before you shred. The same statute requires a complete record of what was destroyed, with the method and the date. A Certificate of Destruction gives you both for each purge.
Does FERPA say how long to keep education records?
34 CFR Part 99 does not give a list of years for each record. It does say, in section 99.10(e), that a school must not destroy education records while a parent or eligible student has an outstanding request to inspect them. Section 99.32(a)(2) also says the record of disclosures stays with the student’s file for as long as the file is kept.
How long does a NH daycare keep a child’s file?
He-C 4002.05(l) requires a licensed program to keep a child’s records on file or readily available for 2 years after the child’s last day of enrollment. Staff records, attendance records and drill records have a one-year minimum under He-C 4002.05(m), and water activity and field trip slips are kept 2 years after the last activity under He-C 4002.31(d).
Do private daycares and tutoring centers have to follow FERPA?
FERPA applies to institutions that receive funds under a U.S. Department of Education program, per 34 CFR 99.1. Many private daycares and tutoring centers do not, so ask your counsel. A tutoring company that keeps records for a school district under contract should treat those records as the district’s education records. Shredding them properly is the right call either way.
How much does school records shredding cost?
Drop-off at our Tewksbury office is 99 cents per pound, or $20 per banker’s box at 10 or more boxes, plus $34.90 in per-job fees. Twenty-five banker’s boxes come to $534.90. Pickup adds $129.95 in Zone 1, $159.95 in Zone 2 or $199.95 in Zone 3, confirmed when you book. Devices are quoted per item.
Can you pick up records from our school building?
Yes, by appointment. A driver loads the sealed boxes at your school, and the material is shredded at our Tewksbury office after it arrives. Pricing assumes ground-level or elevator access, and a handling fee for stairs is quoted up front. We do not shred at your building, so schedule the pickup early in the summer.
Do we need to remove staples and folders?
No. Leave staples, paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands and file folders in place. Remove three-ring binder hardware, hanging-folder frames and anything that is not paper. Laptops, drives, USB sticks and CDs go in a separate bag because they are destroyed separately and quoted per item.
Can a board member or administrator watch the shredding?
Yes. Witnessed shredding is an appointment at our Tewksbury office at $1.99 per pound with a $100 minimum, plus $34.90 in per-job fees. Your staff member watches the records go into the shredder and the certificate is signed in front of them. Some districts use it for sensitive series such as discipline or special education files.
Sources
- 34 CFR Part 99, Family Educational Rights and Privacy (eCFR) (checked November 2026)
- U.S. Department of Education, Student Privacy Policy Office: FERPA (checked November 2026)
- RSA 189:29-a, Records Retention and Disposition (NH General Court) (checked November 2026)
- N.H. Admin. Rules He-C 4000, Child Care Licensing (NH General Court) (checked November 2026)
- RSA 359-C:19, Definitions, notice of security breach (NH General Court) (checked November 2026)
- IRS: How long should I keep records (checked November 2026)
Clear the records room before staff come back
Drive your boxes to Tewksbury on any weekday or book a pickup at the school. Every job comes back with a Certificate of Destruction for the board’s destruction log.
New Hampshire Document Shredding
1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876. Route 38 near I-495, about 15 minutes south of the NH line.
Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pickups and witnessed sessions by appointment.
- Drop-off at 99¢ per pound
- Pickup from $129.95 transport
- Witnessed at $1.99 per pound
New Hampshire Document Shredding · 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876 · (978) 636-0301 · Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.