ECE privacy statement

This privacy statement explains how the University of Auckland ECE Centres and Te Kōhanga Reo manage the personal information we hold about tamariki and their parents/guardians. It outlines the types of personal information we collect, how we use and share it, and the rights people have to access or correct their personal information.

We need to collect a wide range of personal information about tamariki and their parents/guardians and whānau in order to deliver early childhood education services. The types of personal information that we collect depends on the circumstances of collection and the relationship with the individual the information is about.

We may collect or create the following personal information.

You do not have to provide us with the personal information we request. However, not providing certain information may mean that we cannot provide our services to you or your tamariki. We will always explain when personal information is really needed, and can discuss any concerns you may have about providing it to us.

Our primary purpose for collecting personal information is to deliver early childhood education services. To do this, we need to use, and sometimes share, personal information in the ways set out below. If we need to use or share personal information in a way we have not anticipated here, we will only do so if required or permitted by law, or with consent. 

We use personal information to:

• Provide early childhood education services to our tamariki and their whānau
• Ensure the educational, social and medical wellbeing of our tamariki
• Ensure the safety of our tamariki, staff, students, volunteers, contractors and visitors
• Manage and administer our centres
• Communicate with our parents/guardians about their tamariki or more generally to provide information about events or important notices
• Meet legislative and regulatory requirements, including the requirements of the Children’s Act 2014, the Education and Training Act 2020, the ECE Regulations 2008 and the Licensing Criteria
• Inform marketing activities and communications

We may need to disclose personal information to third parties in order to meet the purposes set out above, including to:

• Parents/guardians and whānau
• Volunteers and students working at a centre, where necessary for them to discharge their duties
• Education Review Office, where necessary to meet reporting or audit requirements
• New Zealand Police, where necessary to keep tamariki safe from harm
• Oranga Tamariki, where we believe a tamaiti may be at risk of harm
• Ministry of Education; Personal information about your child is shared with the Ministry of Education who store it securely and treat it in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. Information is disclosed to the Ministry:
                    - for funding allocation purposes
                    - for monitoring purposes
                    - to allow the assignment of a National Student Number* to your child, and
                    - to allow the Minister or Secretary of Education to exercise any of their other powers or responsibilities under the Education and Training Act 2020, and as permitted by Privacy Principles 10 and 11.

Completed forms may also be viewed by Ministry officials on request for the purposes of monitoring and licensing.

Our staff, students and volunteers may use centre devices to take photographs of, or record video or audio footage of, tamariki. We do this primarily to keep parents/guardians updated on the activities their tamariki have been involved in while they are with us. With parent/guardian consent, we may also share photographs with classroom user groups, or use photographs in our social media accounts or marketing materials.

We store personal information electronically (on secure systems or platforms, including cloud platforms) or in hardcopy (in a secure physical location, including lockable cabinets). We may use third-party service providers to store and process personal information for us, some of which may store or process information overseas. We retain personal information only for as long as we have a lawful purpose to use it, and we securely destroy or de-identify the information we no longer need. 

We take all reasonable steps to protect personal information from loss, misuse, or unauthorised access or disclosure. You can find more information about the University of Auckland’s information security safeguards.

All people we deal with have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about them, or to correct their information if they believe it is wrong.

In practice, parents/guardians can generally request a copy of the personal information we hold about their tamaiti, on the basis that they are acting as their tamaiti’s representative. However, we will always act in the best interests of our tamariki, and if we believe that releasing personal information about a tamaiti to a parent/guardian may not be in the tamaiti’s best interests, we may refuse.

In the first instance, please send access or correction requests, or any complaints or concerns about privacy, to your Centre Leader. If they cannot assist, they will escalate the request or concern to the ECE General Manager and, occasionally, to the University of Auckland Privacy Officer.