Privacy Compliance Manual

The Privacy Compliance Manual was updated in April 2025 to reflect the December 2024 changes to the Privacy Act. The manual was first developed by ISA and the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) in 2001 as a guide to handling the personal information of students in non-government schools. Since then, a number of updates have been made to the manual to reflect legislative and other changes with a major revision in 2023 to ensure that the manual remains a useful resource for schools, by refining the contents and presentation.

The 2025 update includes changes to cover:

• Serious invasions of privacy (Part C, paragraph 16)
• Doxing (Part C, paragraph 18)
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Part C, paragraph 18)

The inclusion of AI has also necessitated changes to the Privacy Policies and Collection Notices in Part E.

This 2025 edition supersedes all previous editions.

Australian Education Act 2013

Under the Australian Education Act 2013 and associated regulatory frameworks, schools are required to meet a range of commitments relating to educational accountability.

More information regarding the accountability requirements for Independent schools is available in the Act and the associated Regulation.

The Australian Education Act 2013 – Australian Education Act 2013 (legislation.gov.au)

The Australian Education Regulation 2013 – Australian Education Regulation 2023 (legislation.gov.au)

Collection of student background characteristics

Under the Australian Education Act 2013, schools are required to collect information from parents on family background. This information is used by ACARA to calculate Socio-Educational Advantage (SEA) and Disadvantaged Language Background other than English (DLBOTE) for all Australian schools.

The ACARA Data Standards Manual (ACARA – Student Background data collection for independent schools) provides guidance for schools on the collection of student background characteristics.

National Standards for Student Attendance Data Reporting

Student attendance rates are specified as a performance indicator within the National Education Agreement and as a Key Performance Measure (KPM) in the Measurement Framework for Schooling in Australia.

ACARA developed the National Standards for Student Attendance Reporting (ACARA – national standards for student attendance data reporting) to establish a nationally consistent set of parameters for the collection and reporting of student attendance data.

The national standards are applicable to students in Years 1 to 10 for all government, Catholic and Independent schools in Australia.

Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (the ESOS Act)

The ESOS Act and the associated ESOS legislative framework (https://education.gov.au/esos-framework) is the legislative framework for education providers in regard to overseas students on student visas.

The ESOS Framework also includes the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 (the National Code) (National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 (legislation.gov.au) and the Tuition Protection Service (https://education.gov.au/tps)

The Australian Government Schools International (AGSI) Homestay Standards are also provided to assist schools meet the requirements of Standard 5 of the National Code – Younger Students (http://www.agsi.org.au/homestay-standards/).

Disability Standards for Education

The Disability Standards for Education 2005 (https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2005L00767) clarify the obligations of education and training providers and seek to ensure that students with disability can access and participate in education on the same basis as students without disability.

More information is available on the Department of Education website at https://education.gov.au/disability-standards-education-2005.