Hi Bob,
Thanks for your reply. I'm totally in agreement with you and certainly have absolutely no wish to hide behind DP or anything else. Achievement and working in partnership with parents is a top priority and a positive advantage for our students.
However I also have to have an eye for the legal considerations in providing that information which is what I'm trying to get to the bottom of here.
Best wishes,
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Vesey [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 07 January 2011 11:30
To: Dunster, Jon; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [data-protection] Parental access to student information (again!)
Hi
What are we trying to achieve when we share information about student performance with parents? We are interested in student attainment and colleges (and other education providers) should be working in a three way partnership (learners, parents and teachers) to ensure student success and improve life chances for those students.
When students are missing classes or failing to submit course work our teachers have always shared that information in a variety of ways (for example, through parents evenings, phone calls and letters home). Now that most of our records are electronic we have an opportunity to share relevant data through the web. For me, it's a no brainer, we need parental support for some of our students to enable them to achieve so allowing parental access to attendance and performance data electronically, simply extends the sharing of appropriate information through a different (and potentially more efficient) route.
We are about to open up our data to parents across the web and I see no difficulty in this. We tell students at enrolment that we aim to work in partnership with them and their parents and that we sill share information about attendance, punctuality, behaviour and coursework. A tiny number have a good reason for asking us not to do so and in those cases we don't communicate with parents. The vast majority understand what we are trying to do and don't object.
We also share information with other agencies for some of our learners. For example, the local Youth Offending Team (YOT) has web access to our student record system (in respect of any of their clients who study with us). YOT advisers log on to our system regularly and are able to see immediately whether one of their clients who is studying in the college is falling behind or otherwise underperforming. The information gathered is used to inform the weekly conversation that YOT advisers have with their clients. Since we set that system up the retention and achievement of our students who also work with the YOT has improved significantly. The YOT has a statutory right to receive information from education providers about their clients anyway but we have found that providing relevant information electronically, has a greater impact in terms of helping students to succeed. We now have a similar arrangement with the leaving care team and I expect this to be effective too.
If technology gives us a way to improve what we do in colleges to help students to succeed, we should use it. I can't see any value in using the Data Protecting Act to erect a barrier to this kind of progress. If it helps to raise attainment, and doesn't cause any harm, what's the problem?
Bob Vesey
Director of Learner Services
Harrow College
Tel: 020 8909 6547
Fax 020 8909 6058
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dunster, Jon
Sent: 06 January 2011 12:49
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Parental access to student information (again!)
Hi there,
We are an FE college dealing mostly with students of 16+ though there are a number of 14-16 students sent here by schools.
There is a cunning plan to allow remote parental access to students' academic records and there seems to be an assumption that we can do this without any further consent from the students. I've disagreed and taken the following stance:
"The data subject (the student) will be required to give consent before a parent may access their records since there is no exclusion by which we could disclose this data to a third party (the parent) without it. This applies to any student over the age of 12 (the age by which the ICO says a child becomes independent).
Note that in a school environment (only) the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005 come into play which give a parent the right of access whilst the child is in school.
If a student is sent to us from school then we will likely be in a data-processor arrangement for the personal data (educational record) held by the school. If a parent wants access to that data then it must be made through the school and we must not disclose the data directly."
Can anyone please comment as to whether this position stands up to scrutiny?
Best wishes,
Jon
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