Single digital record: no more carrying the same papers

It is the law ordering the creation of a single digital record, shared among four agencies, for persons with functional diversity. Its most useful sentence is written in the negative: no agency may demand from you — or from your legal guardians — the physical presentation of documents already stored there. It is the law aimed at the back-and-forth with the same folder of papers.

The law speaks of “persons with functional diversity” without defining the term in its articles, and sets no application requirements: the record is built by the agencies, not by the person. The four agencies obliged to integrate the information are the Department of Health, the Department of the Family, the Department of Education and the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration. Access to the record is strictly limited to those agencies concerned and to the person with functional diversity or their legal representatives, as established by law.

Information pending verification.

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: They cannot ask on paper for what is already stored

   It is the sentence to take to the counter, and it is written without exceptions: “No agency may demand from the person with functional diversity, or from their legal guardians, the physical presentation of documents previously stored in the Single Digital Record.” The prohibition expressly covers legal guardians, not only the person.

2. 2

   Step 2: Ten days for a new document to enter the record

   The law puts a clock on digitisation, which is what makes the above enforceable. Agencies “shall have the obligation to digitise every document for storage in the Single Digital Record and update it within a term of no more than ten (10) days from that document being physically created.” Ten days from when the document is created on paper.

3. 3

   Step 3: Which the four agencies are

   It matters because outside them the obligation to integrate is not written. “The Department of Health, the Department of the Family, the Department of Education and the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration shall be obliged to integrate each person with functional diversity’s information into the Single Digital Record.” The law’s public policy names those same four when speaking of a record that is “single and interoperable.”

4. 4

   Step 4: You have a right to see your own record

   The law assigns it to PRITS with three adjectives worth retaining. PRITS, coordinating with the agencies, “shall establish the mechanisms necessary to guarantee that persons with functional diversity have secure, agile and confidential access to the information contained in their Single Digital Record,” and that access must ensure “the information is available in adequate and accessible formats for persons with functional diversity.”

5. 5

   Step 5: Who may enter the record and who keeps it

   The law closes the door with a short list: “Access to the record shall be strictly limited to the agencies concerned and to the person with functional diversity or their legal representatives, as established by law,” and all the information “shall be protected under the current confidentiality and personal data protection rules.” The custodian is PRITS, which “shall have the responsibility of ensuring its optimal functioning, integrity, security and confidentiality.”

6. 6

   Step 6: When it is supposed to be working

   Here it is worth being exact because there are two chained clocks. PRITS “shall adopt the regulations necessary for compliance with this Act within a period of no more than one hundred eighty (180) days of its approval,” and each agency shall then have “a term of ninety (90) days, from PRITS’s regulatory approval,” to integrate its platforms and information systems. On effectiveness, the law provides it shall take effect one hundred eighty (180) days after its approval, “except those provisions on adopting regulations, compiling and preparing data inventories, designing the single digital record, work plans, reports and manuals, which shall take effect immediately after its approval.” The compilation we cite dates the law April 11, 2025; we publish the rule and that date, not a computed date.

7. 7

   Step 7: The regulations skip the usual process

   A detail that explains why this can move fast and why you will not see public hearings. The law provides that “the regulations adopted under this Act shall be expressly exempt from the rulemaking process established in Act 38-2017, as amended, known as the ‘Uniform Administrative Procedure Act of the Government of Puerto Rico.’” In addition, the agencies concerned must change their circular letters, rules, regulations, norms and procedures to comply with the law.

8. 8

   Step 8: What happens to old rules that get in the way

   The law brings a general repealing clause and it answers the “our regulation requires the original paper”: “Any provision of law or regulation incompatible with this Act’s provisions is hereby repealed to the extent such incompatibility exists.”

There is no application: the record is created and fed by the agencies, with PRITS as custodian. If one of the four agencies demands on paper a document that should already be in the record, the law’s sentence worth citing is the one in the agency responsibilities article. For access to your own information, the law assigns PRITS to establish the mechanisms, coordinating with the agencies. If your matter is the bill of rights of persons with disabilities or a special education complaint, those have their own guides here.

• Bringing on paper again what is already in the record: the law forbids an agency from demanding it, from you or from your legal guardians.
• Believing the obligation reaches every agency: the law names four — Health, Family, Education and Vocational Rehabilitation.
• Assuming a new document enters on its own: the agency must digitise it and update the record within ten (10) days of it being physically created.
• Thinking the record belongs to the agency: the custodian is PRITS and access is strictly limited to the agencies concerned and to the person or their legal representatives.
• Accepting an “our regulation requires it”: the law repeals any incompatible legal or regulatory provision, to the extent of the incompatibility.
• Looking in this law for a fine or a complaint: it has none, and we do not invent them here.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Portal de Servicios del Gobierno de Puerto Rico (PR.gov)

  PR.gov

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov