Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education

Bureau of Early Care Regulation

Child Care Certification Policy Manual

2.3 Disclosure of Emails, Notes, Drafts Created by Certification Workers

Emails can seem to be a casual and informal means of communication. However, e-mails composed, received and copied by certification workers assigned certification work responsibilities are official governmental agency business communications and must be disclosed in a public records request or discovery request. Therefore, it is best if e-mails, like comments entered in WISCCRS, are objective, factual and verifiable and should not contain derogatory comments, opinion statements, subjective observations such as “I feel” and “I sense”, speculations, second hand information that is not verifiable, guesses at a provider’s motivations, or the certification worker’s personal biases and feelings about the situation or the behavior of the persons involved in the situation. A good rule of thumb when one composes an email is to write the email as if it will be widely distributed and will require the approval of a supervisor.

Notes and rough drafts may be created by a certification worker while conducting monitoring visits, investigating complaints, receiving information from other professionals, fielding calls from providers, etc. Certification workers shall consult with their agency’s corporation counsel whether or not notes and drafts may be destroyed by the certification worker once a final version of the documentation has been created. Typically, the documentation is considered final once it has been entered into WISCCRS, or the letter or email conveying the final conclusions has been sent to the intended recipient.

If the certification worker has taken photos in connection with a site visit and the photos are referenced in any finding or in comments, the photos may not be destroyed and must be retrained. In an open records request the photos would be provided along with the rest of the record to the records custodian who will determine what may be released.

This page last updated 01/2020.