What are Attendance Services#

Attendance Services help students get back to regular attendance at school. Attendance Services collect information from schools, before then collecting further information directly from a student or their parents.

Information collected will be stored in an Attendance Case Management System (CMS), which is used by school staff, Attendance Services and the Ministry of Education. It means they can access and manage information relating to a student’s absence or non-enrolment at school.

More information about Attendance Services is available.

Attendance

Terms used#

These terms are used in this privacy statement.

Personal information

Anything about an identifiable person. It does not have to be the person’s name. It could be something like their phone number, home address, or information about their learning or circumstances.

Request for support

When a school asks us to help a student this is called a request for support.

Case

When a request for support has been given to a provider who will work with the student, their parents and the school this is called a case.

Why Attendance Services collect personal information#

Schools and parents are responsible for making sure that students attend school each day. Attendance Services help students get back to good attendance levels at school when their attendance level is concerning.

To do this Attendance Services, on behalf of the Ministry, need to collect, store and use personal information when working on a case to:

• help schools and parents in their duty to ensure student attendance, when attendance levels are concerning
• make sure that referral and case information is accurate and current for each student referred
• make sure that the correct people have access to information
• provide reporting and statistics to the Ministry on the Attendance Service at an individual case, school, regional, or national level.

Attendance Services may use anonymised information (that cannot identify any individual) for research, analysis, and service improvement purposes. This helps us understand trends and improve national support for students while protecting privacy.

Stepped attendance response – STAR

How we collect your personal information#

Personal information for Attendance Services is collected:

• indirectly from schools and Ministry regional offices staff when making a request for support
• automatic electronic updates by the Ministry (from ENROL and daily attendance data)
• directly from a student and their family by an Attendance Service Provider when managing a case
• indirectly from other Government agencies in some cases.

What personal information Attendance Services collect and use#

Attendance Services collect, store and use the information listed below.

All individuals#

Biographical:

• name
• role, for example student, parent, teacher.

Students#

Additional biographical:

• National Student Number
• date of birth
• gender
• ethnicity
• iwi
• home address
• languages spoken.

Attendance:

• date and time of attendance and attendance codes
• while the case is active
• attendance eligibility status.

Enrolment:

• school
• student type
• year level
• leaving reason (for previous schools).

Pastoral:

• Individual Education Plans (IEPs)
• records of previous interventions
• medical information relevant to their attendance.

Case management content:

• reason for request for support
• attendance actions taken to date
• any content in the attendance CMS including documents, messages, emails, screenshots, audio, video, calendar entries, notes, contextual information relevant to student’s attendance at school.

Parents and whānau#

Additional biographical:

• contact details (phone number, email address)
• home address (if different from student's home address)
• relationship to student
• languages spoken.

How we keep personal information safe#

User roles for schools, in-school providers and attendance service providers#

Schools and attendance service providers (ASPs) decide how to allocate types of attendance CMS roles to their staff. This determines the information the user can access or update.

School and in-school providers (ISPs) staff will only have access to information for students at their own school.

Staff of ASPs will have access to information for students from all the schools in their catchment area. 

What users can do#

What someone can do in the attendance CMS depends on the organisation they work for and the role they hold.

Schools and kura

School leadership, such as the principal or deputy principal, can:

• decide which staff have access to the Attendance CMS to make requests for support
• make new requests for support
• update some information on active cases, for example the primary contact's name, add comments or upload documents.

The primary contact, for example a home room teacher, for a request for support or case can:

• make new requests for support
• update some information on active cases where they have been named as the primary contact for that student, for example add comments or upload documents.

School office support can:

• manage the access to the attendance CMS for staff based on the principal’s decision
• make new requests for support
• update some information on active cases, for example change the primary contact, add comments or upload documents.

In-school providers

ISPs work on low-risk attendance cases for 1 school only. In most cases, there will be 1 member of school staff dedicated to ISP attendance work. They will hold the workflow lead role.

The ISP workflow lead can:

• do all the things an ASP workflow lead can do for requests for support and cases, for their school only.

Attendance service providers

ASPs have case management staff who work directly with students, parents and workflow leads who oversee their work.

The ASP workflow lead can:

• do all things a case manager can do
• update requests for support to assign to a case manager, or re-allocate to another ASP
• update some information on active cases, such as notes or uploading documents
• create reports on cases and dashboards for service monitoring
• manage the access to the attendance CMS for their staff.

ASP case managers can:

• update requests for support assigned to them
• update information on active cases, including all correspondence, activities, notes or uploading documents
• share specific information with the school’s primary contact and leadership
• request additional support for a student from other agencies, with the consent of caregivers
• label information as sensitive within the attendance CMS, to limit who else can view that information
• create reports and dashboards on their current cases.

Ministry national and regional office staff

The Central Investigation team can:

• review requests for support to determine whether they meet Attendance Service criteria
• allocate cases to ASPs, or change the allocation from 1 ASP to another
• make information requests to other Government agencies including Immigration, Ministry of Social Development (MSD), Oranga Tamariki and Police, and update case information to assist with locating a student.

The National Contracts team can:

• create reports and dashboards of cases at a national, ASP or ISP level.

Regional contract managers can:

• create reports and dashboards on cases for the ASPs they monitor.

Some regional office staff can:

• create new requests for support only.

The Prosecutions team can:

• review all information on active cases that have been notified for potential prosecution, including all correspondence, activities, notes or uploaded documents
• create a prosecutions report.

What personal information users can see#

The personal information a user of the attendance CMS can see depends on the organisation they work for and the role they hold.

Schools and kura

The school leaders can see:

• all requests for support (including drafts) and all active cases for students at their school
• case history (including closed cases) for students at their school
• the detailed support plan agreed for a student
• documents and comments in the case record that the ASP has chosen to share with them
• dashboards and reporting showing the status of all requests for support and cases.

The primary contact for a case can see:

• all requests for support (including drafts) made by themselves
• basic information about an active case where they are the primary contact
• the detailed support plan agreed for a student where they are the primary contact
• documents and comments in the case record that the ASP has chosen to share with them.

School office support can see:

• all the staff at the school who have access to the attendance CMS
• all requests for support (including drafts) made by themselves and other staff at their school
• all active cases for students at their school, and basic information about closed cases
• dashboards and reporting showing the status of all requests for support and cases.

In-school providers

ISP workflow lead can see:

• all the information an ASP workflow lead can see, for all requests for support or cases from their school only.

Attendance service providers

The ASP workflow lead can see:

• all staff at the ASP who have access to the attendance CMS
• all information, including sensitive information, about requests for support and cases assigned to the ASP, whether open or closed.
• the case history for closed cases managed by other ASPs, when the same student has a new case assigned to the ASP
• all the reports and dashboards a case manager can see.

ASP case managers can see:

• all staff at the ASP who have access to the attendance CMS
• all information about all requests for support and cases assigned to themselves, whether open or closed, including requests for information from other agencies, requests for additional support, and sensitive information
• student daily attendance data reported by a school to the Ministry for all active cases assigned to themselves
• request for support and case history for closed cases managed by other ASPs, when a new case for the same student is assigned to the case manager
• most information about a case where they have been assigned as a team member to provide support to the main case manager, for example, fluency in a family’s main language
• reports on their cases and any previous cases for students they are currently working with
• dashboards of their cases for service monitoring including case load management.

Ministry national and regional office staff

The Central Investigation team can see:

• high-level information (excluding detailed case notes) in cases in the attendance CMS, open or closed, for all ASPs and ISPs.

The National Contracts team can see:

• high level information for all cases in the attendance CMS
• basic demographic information about all cases (a student’s last known home address, enrolment status, the school they last attended)
• the roles assigned to all ASP, ISP, and school staff
• reports and dashboards on cases at a national, ASP or ISP level.

Regional contract managers can see:

• high level information for all requests for support and cases assigned to ASPs that they monitor for contract management purposes
• national level overall performance measures, to compare service level performance of the ASPs they monitor
• view reports and dashboards on cases for the ASPs they monitor.

Regional Office kaimahi can see:

• all requests for support (including drafts) made by themselves.

The Prosecutions team can see:

• all information on active cases notified for potential prosecution, including all correspondence, activities, notes or uploaded documents.

Ministry responsibilities#

We follow best practices for security and privacy, managing risks to protect all information collected, stored, or shared for Attendance Services.

We are responsible for:

• helping students and whānau by attending multi-agency meetings (roundtables) to ensure students get the support they need
• using Attendance Service data for management and reporting purposes
• testing how well the attendance CMS is working, including keeping the system secure and the information safe
• ensuring that any information shared to another system meets required security and privacy standards
• providing information to the attendance CMS, such as updates from ENROL
• providing daily attendance data received from schools for students who have an active case. The privacy statement applicable to daily attendance reports can be found on the Education Counts website
• managing any identified risks
• identifying inappropriate access
• applying necessary patches and updates to the system
• responding when someone asks for information under the Privacy Act or the Official Information Act.

Attendance – Education Counts

Who we share your personal information with#

Changing school#

When a student changes school while they have an active case:

• the new school and the new ASP will be assigned to the active case
• the former school will not be able to see any cases for students who have left their school, even if the case has been closed
• the former ASP will not be able to see the current active case or any new cases. They will still be able to see cases that they closed before the student moved for reporting purposes.

Sharing information with third parties#

Biographical personal information will in some cases be shared with other Government agencies such as MSD or Immigration. This might be to help find a student and their parents or confirm if they have left the country. This is managed by formal information sharing agreements between us and other government agencies.

Personal information may in some cases also be shared with other government agencies if additional help is required to support a student's attendance at school, for example at multi-agency roundtables. This will only happen where permitted under the Privacy Act, or other relevant legislation.

In some cases where additional help to support a student's attendance is required, personal information may be shared with third parties an ISP or ASP suggests may be able to help. For example, a mini-bus service operated by a local community group who can provide the student transport to/from school. Personal information will only be shared with the student and/or parent's agreement.

Your rights under the Privacy Act 2020#

Under the Privacy Act, you have the right to ask for a copy of any information we hold about you, and to ask for it to be corrected if you think it is wrong.

You can request a copy of information we hold about you by emailing us.

Email: [email protected]

How long we keep your personal information#

All information collected for Attendance Services is retained for 7 years after closure of the most recent case for that student.

Personal information held in the Attendance Service CMS are considered care records and as such are subject to the Temporary care records protection instruction which covers both existing and yet to be created care records, from alteration, destruction, discharge.

Temporary care records protection instruction – Archives New Zealand