Northland School Board of Trustees
Privacy Policy
Rationale:
Northland School is required to gather, store and access personal information in such a way that complies with the Privacy Act 1993.
Purpose:
• To protect the privacy of individuals associated with Northland School, in accordance with the Privacy Act 1993.
• To establish clear guidelines covering the gathering, storage and retrieval of personal information that the school might hold.
Other Policies:
This policy prevails over any other Northland School policy.
Guidelines:
• Personal information, as referred to in this policy, is any information the school holds in any form about a student, parent/caregiver, staff or Board member or another individual associated with the school. Such information can include:
- Any aspect of current or historical personal or family details
- An address or other contact details
- Any information about a specific student’s progress or work at school
- Any information about a staff member that relates to their professional performance
- Any information that relates to personal or professional activities
- Any information that relates to police vetting
• All staff and the Board will comply with the provisions of the Privacy Act 1993 in their treatment of personal information collected and held by the school on students, their parents/caregivers and families, staff, the Board and any individual associated with the school.
• The Principal is the school’s designated Privacy Officer under the Privacy Act 1993. The Principal is responsible for ensuring s/he is adequately familiar with the Privacy Act to carry out this role competently.
• The Privacy Officer is responsible for ensuring that all those that have access to personal information are aware of their obligations under the Privacy Act 1993.
• All parents/caregivers, who provide personal information to the school, will be informed as to the intended use of the information and to whom it could be disclosed. In most cases, this will be covered in a statement at the time of enrolment.
• Only staff and the Board will have access to personal information on any student, unless the release of information is either specifically authorised by the parents/caregivers of the student.
• The Privacy Officer can authorise the release of any information if s/he judges that not to do so would put the safety of the individual at risk.
• Parents/caregivers have access to any information held by the school on their child/ren or legal dependants.
• Publication on the school’s web site (or in any other medium) of personal information or information that may identify an individual requires the authorisation of the individual involved, in addition to the authorisation of their parent/caregiver in the case of a student.
• Only the Principal, the chairperson of the Board and the Staff member involved will have access to personal information on that staff member relating to performance management or any aspect of their personal performance. The Principal or Board Chairperson may share information with the Board “in committee” if this is required for the Board to carry out their duties.
Approved: August 2009
Review Date: 2012