The Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment (the department) would like to advise all parents and guardians that it collects certain information about your child’s school, its staff, and student body.

Why is this information collected?
This information is collected by the department in accordance with the Australian Education Act 2013 (the Act) and the Australian Education Regulation 2013 (the Regulation). The Act and the Regulation require the legal entity responsible for the administration of the school (the approved authority) to provide certain information to the department.

The department collects this information to:
• Ensure the provision of Australian Government funding to schools is properly calculated and appropriately managed.
• Conduct research, statistical analysis and develop school education policy for the Australian Government.
• Meet national and international reporting obligations on school students in Australia.
• Publish and provide information about schools to the public.

How is information collected?
Information is provided by a school or their approved authority via various data collections on the SchoolsHUB website.

What information is collected?
• The Student Residential Address and Other Information Collection (Address Collection) provides student residential addresses (excluding student names), and the names and addresses of parents/guardians of students for eligible full or part-time primary and secondary students enrolled at most non-government schools.
• The Financial Accountability (FA) assurance activity is done to certify that the financial assistance provided by the Australian Government for schools has been spent or committed to be spent to provide school education.
• The Financial Questionnaire (FQ) reports the income, expenditure, assets and liabilities from all non-government Australian schools receiving Australian Government recurrent grant funding.
• Student Attendance (STATS) provides a school’s student attendance rate data by grade, gender and Indigeneity from non-government schools for full-time students in Years 1 to 10 attending regular and special schools.
• The Non-Government Schools Census (Census) provides information about the number and characteristics of the school’s staff and student body during a specific reference period.
• Census Special Circumstances Applications may also be made by schools to include a student/s who did not attend during the Census reference period but otherwise meets Census eligibility requirements. Schools will provide the department with information and documents about the student demonstrating their eligibility. The department does not require information that personally identifies a student and asks schools to de-identify any documents before providing
them.

How will the information be used and disclosed?
Some of the information collected by the department from schools in accordance with the Act and the Regulation, may be ‘personal information’ for the purposes of the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act). Personal information is protected by law, including under the Privacy Act. Any use or disclosure of your personal information must occur in accordance with the Regulation. Personal information is information or an opinion about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes an individual’s name and contact details.

When student information is provided to the department by schools or approved authorities, the department requests that the information must not explicitly identify any student. For example, student names or student identifiers are not provided. To help protect your child’s privacy, we support schools to submit their reporting requirements using de-identified records. 

What do you need to do?
You do not need to do anything. Your school is responsible for providing the requested information to the department.