Australian Government SES Collection Notice

This notice is from the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment (the department), to advise you that the department has requested that your child's school provide a 'statement of addresses', in accordance with the Australian Education Regulation 2013 (Cth) (Regulation).

A statement of addresses contains the following information about each student at the school:

• Student residential address (not student names)

• Student level of education (i.e. whether the student is a primary or secondary student)

• Student boarding school status (i.e. whether the student is boarding or a day student)

• Names and residential addresses of students' parent(s) and/or guardian(s)

Purpose of the collection

This collection is routinely used to inform Commonwealth school education policy, and to help ensure that Commonwealth funding arrangements for non-government schools are based on need, and are fair and transparent.

The information collected in the statement of addresses will be used to inform school funding calculations. It is combined with data held by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to calculate the estimated capacity of a school community to contribute to the schools' operating costs (capacity to contribute). Australian Government funding to non-government schools takes this estimated capacity to contribute into account.

On 20 September 2018 the Government announced that it will implement a new, improved capacity to contribute methodology used in the calculation of the Commonwealth's needs-based funding arrangements for non-government schools. Known as the direct measure of income (DMI), the proposed new methodology is based on the median income of parents or guardians of students at a non-government school. This is in contrast to the current area based measure which is a point in time analysis based on average circumstances in 2011 of the area in which students at the school lived. This change follows a review of the existing methodology by the National School Resourcing Board. Further information about the review and the Government's response can be found on the department's website: https://www.education.gov.au/review­socio-economic-status-ses-score-methodology.

Use and disclosure of personal information

Your personal information is protected by law, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Any use and disclosure of your personal information relating to the statement of addresses will occur in accordance with the Regulation.

Your personal information may be used by the department, or disclosed to the ABS, for the purposes of reviewing capacity to contribute methodology, calculating capacity to contribute and Commonwealth school education policy development (including school funding), or where it is otherwise required or authorised by law.

Your personal information will be provided to the ABS for capacity to contribute calculations and analysis as part of the Multi-Agency Data Integration Project {MADIP). Departmental staff will use the ABS' secure Datalab to undertake analysis and calculate capacity to contribute scores for schools using de-identified data (i.e. data that has had identifiable information such as name and address removed). The linked information will not be used for other purposes.

What do you need to do?

You are not required to do anything. Your school is responsible for providing the requested details to the department, however, you may wish to ensure that your school has the most up-to-date and correct details for your family.

Contacts for further information

Your school can provide additional information about the process of the address collection.

Please read the attached PDF for full details.