30 October 2024
Dear Nina
Official Information Act request regarding data usage and privacy in ERO attendance report
Please consider this letter acknowledgement of your Official Information Act request for:
The report notes that chronically absent students are:
“Four times as likely to have a recent history of offending,” with 4 percent of chronically absent
students having such a history, compared to less than 1 percent of all students. Could you clarify
how this link was established? Specifically:
•
What data from schools was used to link students to their offending history?
•
Which agency provided the “history of offending” information, and what specific data
points did it contain?
•
How were individual students identified and matched across datasets for attendance
and offending history?
•
What measures were in place to ensure students’ privacy in this data linkage?
•
Under what authority did the ERO access this data?
“Four times as likely to live in social housing,” with 12 percent of chronically absent students
living in social housing, compared to 3 percent of all students. Could you explain how this data
link was determined? Specifically:
•
What data was used to connect attendance information to students' social housing status?
•
Which agencies were involved in sharing this information?
•
What specific data about social housing was provided to ERO?
“At age 23, young adults who were chronically absent cost $4,000 more than other young
people,” with particular costs noted in corrections, hospital admissions, and receiving benefits.
Could you specify:
•
What data was used to link student attendance information with hospital admissions,
corrections, and benefit receipt data?
•
What specific data points were shared to determine the cost differences?
•
Which agencies were involved, and what data was exchanged?
•
How was privacy maintained in the data-sharing process for these individuals?
•
Additionally, were students or their caregivers informed and asked to provide consent
before any of this data was shared across agencies for the purposes of this report?
Ko te Tamaiti te Pūtake o te Kaupapa
The Child – the Heart of the Matter
We received your request on 30 October 2024.
We will endeavour to respond as soon as possible, and in any event no later than 27 November 2024
being 20 working days after the day your request was received. If we are unable to respond to your
request by then, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.
Please note that it is our policy to proactively release our responses to official information requests
where possible. We do not publish requesters' personal information.
Yours sincerely,
Governance and Accountability Team
Governance and Accountability
Education Review Office | Te Tari Arotake Mātauranga National Office | Tari Matua | [email address]
