Indiana public records and open meetings, in plain English.
Plain-language guides to the Access to Public Records Act (IC 5-14-3), the Open Door Law (IC 5-14-1.5), and local records retention, with Indiana Code citations on every claim. Written the same way we write for the Michigan clerks we serve every week, and current through the July 1, 2026 APRA changes.
The guides
Indiana's public records law just changed: HEA 1360, explained
Effective July 1, 2026: request portals, new denial grounds, an out-of-state fee, and new reporting duties. What a records custodian actually does differently now.
Indiana APRA deadlines explained: the two clocks
24 hours for in-person requests, 7 calendar days for written ones, and no fixed production deadline at all. How the clocks really work, with citations.
What can an Indiana public agency charge for records?
No inspection fees, no search-labor fees, dime-a-page copies, and the new out-of-state supplemental fee. The full APRA fee rules under IC 5-14-3-8.
The Open Door Law 48-hour notice rule, and everything around it
How the 48 hours are counted, where notice must be posted, the annual shortcut for regular meetings, executive-session notices, and the serial-meetings trap.
Indiana's meeting livestream law: who must stream and what you must keep
IC 5-14-1.5-2.9 took effect July 1, 2025. Live transmission, archived copies linked to the agenda, and the 90-day retention window, explained.
Indiana meeting memoranda: what the law actually requires
Indiana does not require minutes. It requires memoranda, with specific contents, kept as the meeting progresses. The checklist, plus executive-session certification.
Indiana records retention: the schedules, the commission, and destruction
One statewide committee approves every schedule, your county commission implements them, and destroying a record outside the rules is a felony. The full system.
How long do we keep meeting minutes in Indiana? Forever.
Minutes are permanent and critical under GEN 10-01. The recording can go once minutes are approved, with one 90-day livestream wrinkle.
How long do we keep building permits in Indiana?
Ten years after completion or last renewal, whichever is sooner. Government construction projects are the permanent exception.
How long do we keep election ballots in Indiana? 22 months.
Voted ballots: 22 months after the election, matching the federal rule. Unused ballots follow the recount-petition deadline.
How long do we keep emails in Indiana local government?
Retention follows the content, not the medium: routine correspondence 3 years, policy correspondence permanent, substantive email carries its record.
How long do we keep personnel files in Indiana local government?
Ten years after separation, plus the permanent employment-log condition most offices miss. Medical files 3 years, exposure records 35.
How long do we keep APRA request files in Indiana?
There is no dedicated series. We checked every schedule. Requests ride the 3-year general-files bucket, fee records the 6-year revenue rule.
We model public access law at the statute level. Indiana is our second state.
Dekree builds compliance software for local government: records requests, meeting notices, memoranda and minutes, and records retention, modeled directly on the statutes that create the obligations. Michigan public bodies run on Dekree today. We have mapped Indiana the same way: the Access to Public Records Act, the Open Door Law, and the retention schedules approved by the Oversight Committee on Public Records.
These guides are the first public piece of that work. They are educational, they cite the Indiana Code and the Public Access Counselor's official guidance, and they are reviewed against the statute text before publishing.
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Official Indiana sources we cite
Indiana Code, Title 5
APRA (IC 5-14-3), Open Door Law (IC 5-14-1.5), and the records statutes (IC 5-15), from the General Assembly.
Public Access Counselor
Advisory opinions, the official handbook, and the state's own guidance on the 2026 APRA changes.
IARA retention schedules
The OCPR-approved retention schedules every Indiana local unit follows.