How long do we keep personnel files in Indiana local government? Ten years after separation, if the log is done.
Ten years after the employee separates from service, and only after their name, job title, employment dates, and rehire eligibility are entered in a permanent log of former employees. The rules quoted verbatim from Indiana's County/Local General Retention Schedule.
- Personnel files (GEN 10-27)
- Destroy 10 years after the employee separates from service AND after verifying the permanent log entry under GEN 20-02
- Employment logs (GEN 20-02)
- PERMANENT. Name, job title or classification, employment dates, and rehire eligibility status for every former employee
- Employee medical records (GEN 10-28)
- Destroy 3 years after the employee leaves county/local government
- Hazardous exposure records (GEN 10-32)
- Destroy 35 years after employee termination
- After destruction
- File State Form 44905, Notice of Destruction, with the County Commission of Public Records, copy to IARA (IC 5-15-6-2.5(d))
The rule is ten years AND a log entry, not a bare clock
Ask most offices and you will hear “ten years.” That is half the rule. The County/Local General Retention Schedule states the whole of it in one sentence, and the sentence has two conditions joined by an AND:
County/Local General Retention Schedule (GEN), series GEN 10-27, approved by the Oversight Committee on Public Records 11/12/2025. Applies to Indiana county and local government.
Two things follow. First, the clock runs from separation, not from hiring and not from any document’s date, so a 25-year employee’s file lives 35 years or more in total. Second, year ten arriving does not by itself authorize destruction. The schedule conditions destruction on verifying that four specific facts about the former employee have been carried into a permanent log. An office that shreds at the ten-year mark without that verification has not followed the schedule, however old the file is.
The log is what survives forever, not the file
The permanent piece of this system is easy to miss because it is a different record series entirely:
County/Local General Retention Schedule (GEN), series GEN 20-02, approved by the Oversight Committee on Public Records 11/12/2025.
This is the trade the schedule makes. The bulky file, with its evaluations, discipline records, and correspondence, gets a ten-year life. The skeleton facts a government still needs decades later, who worked here, in what job, for what dates, and whether they are eligible for rehire, are distilled into a log the office keeps forever. If your office has no such log, that is the gap to close first, because until it exists, no personnel file is eligible for destruction under GEN 10-27 no matter how long the employee has been gone.
The satellites: medical and exposure records run on their own clocks
Two categories of employment records are scheduled separately from the personnel file, and both would be mishandled by a batch destruction at year ten:
County/Local General Retention Schedule (GEN), series GEN 10-28, approved by the Oversight Committee on Public Records 11/12/2025.
County/Local General Retention Schedule (GEN), series GEN 10-32, approved by the Oversight Committee on Public Records 11/12/2025.
The spread makes sense once you ask what each record might need to prove. Routine medical records go quickly. Exposure records answer claims about occupational illness that can surface decades after the job ended, so they outlive the personnel file by a quarter century. The practical consequence: keep these as their own series with their own disposal dates, not as loose pages inside the personnel file.
When someone requests a personnel file under APRA
Retention says how long the file exists; the Access to Public Records Act says who can see it while it does. Personnel files of public employees and files of applicants for public employment are discretionarily exempt from disclosure under IC 5-14-3-4(b)(8), meaning the agency may withhold them but is not required to. The exemption carries mandatory carve-outs the agency must disclose on request: the name, compensation, job title, business address, business telephone number, job description, education and training background, previous work experience, dates of first and last employment, information on the status of any formal charges against the employee, and the factual basis for a disciplinary action in which final action resulted in suspension, demotion, or discharge. And the file is never exempt from the affected employee themselves, who is entitled to all of it. How Indiana’s response clocks work when such a request lands is covered in our guide to APRA deadlines.
Destroying the file properly
When both conditions of GEN 10-27 are satisfied, the destruction itself has paperwork. For records past their approved schedule, Indiana does not require advance permission: destroy the records, then file State Form 44905, Notice of Destruction, with your County Commission of Public Records, with a copy to the Indiana Archives and Records Administration (IC 5-15-6-2.5(d)). Since personnel files carry confidential material, destruction must leave the records unable to be reconstructed (IC 5-15-5.1-13). The full disposal workflow, including what changes for records with no approved series, is covered in our guide to Indiana retention schedules. And if you also work under Michigan practice, note the states diverge here: Michigan’s baseline is 7 years after employment ends with no permanent-log condition, as covered in the Michigan personnel-file rules.
Dekree runs this workflow for Michigan local governments today: separation dates tracked per employee record, with the log entries and destruction eligibility handled for you. We are bringing the platform to Indiana next. If you want it in your office, email contact@dekree.ai with the subject line Indiana and we will add your office to the Indiana rollout list.
Verify it yourself
Every quote above is the retention language as printed in the official County/Local General Retention Schedule PDF on in.gov, approved by the Oversight Committee on Public Records on November 12, 2025. Employment records carry real liability; confirm disposal decisions with your agency attorney before anything is destroyed.
Common questions
How long does an Indiana local government keep personnel files?
Ten years after the employee separates from service, under County/Local General Retention Schedule series GEN 10-27, but the ten years alone is not enough. Destruction is authorized only after verifying that the employee name, job title or classification, employment dates, and rehire eligibility status have been added to a permanent log of former employees under series GEN 20-02. An office that destroys at year ten without the log entry has skipped a condition the schedule states expressly.
What do we keep forever when an employee leaves?
The employment log, not the file. Series GEN 20-02 (Employment Logs) is PERMANENT and is maintained permanently within each government office. Before a personnel file can be destroyed under GEN 10-27, four facts must be verified in that log: the employee name, job title or classification, employment dates, and rehire eligibility status. The file itself is destroyed at ten years; the log entry outlives it indefinitely.
How long do we keep employee medical and exposure records?
They run on their own clocks, separate from the personnel file. Employee medical records are destroyed three years after the employee leaves county or local government (GEN 10-28). Employee hazardous exposure records are destroyed thirty-five years after employee termination (GEN 10-32). Neither should be batch-destroyed with the personnel file at year ten: the medical clock is shorter and the exposure clock is far longer.
Are personnel files public records under Indiana APRA?
They are discretionarily exempt: a public agency may withhold personnel files of public employees and files of applicants for public employment under IC 5-14-3-4(b)(8). But the exemption carves out information the agency must still disclose, including the name, compensation, job title, business address, business telephone number, job description, education and training background, previous work experience, dates of first and last employment, the status of any formal charges against the employee, and the factual basis for a disciplinary action in which final action resulted in suspension, demotion, or discharge. All personnel file information must also be made available to the affected employee or their representative.
This article is educational information for Indiana public agencies, current as of the publication date. It is not legal advice, and statutes and court decisions change. Confirm specifics with your agency attorney. Statute text: iga.in.gov.