A registered school shall maintain a permanent record for each student for 50 years from the last date of the student's attendance. A registered school offering distance instruction to a student located in Minnesota shall maintain a permanent record for each Minnesota student for 50 years from the last date of the student's attendance. Records include a student's academic transcript, documents, and files containing student data about academic credits earned, courses completed, grades awarded, degrees awarded, and periods of attendance. To preserve permanent records, a school shall submit a plan that meets the following requirements:
(1) at least one copy of the records must be held in a secure, fireproof depository or duplicate records must be maintained off site in a secure location and in a manner approved by the office;
(2) an appropriate official must be designated to provide a student with copies of records or a transcript upon request;
(3) an alternative method approved by the office of complying with clauses (1) and (2) must be established if the school ceases to exist; and
(4) if the school has no binding agreement approved by the office for preserving student records, a continuous surety bond or an irrevocable letter of credit issued by a financial institution must be filed with the office in an amount not to exceed $20,000. The bond or irrevocable letter of credit shall run to the state of Minnesota. In the event of a school closure, the surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit must be used by the office to retrieve, recover, maintain, digitize, and destroy academic records.