Questions have been raised about the security of students’ private information after an administrative bungle at a Bendigo school saw end-of-year reports mailed to the wrong households.
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Parents with children enrolled at Weeroona College Bendigo took to social media on Thursday to report they were the recipients of letters meant for other families.
Many used Facebook to reach out to the rightful owners of the misdirected mail.
One parent, whose child was due to start year 7 in January, was sent letters intended for three different students – none of whom lived at her address.
The education department is investigating the mix-up, which school principal Leanne Preece confirmed today.
“As soon as we became aware of this issue we wrote to all parents who may have been affected to apologise and ask them to return misdelivered reports to us,” Ms Preece said.
“Reports will be re-sent to the correct addresses once the school admin office reopens in January.”
She also said parents could access their students’ reports online, although the school’s website was down on Friday morning. It was back up at lunchtime.
It is believed student information packs, also sent home this week, were mailed to the wrong addresses too.
It is not known how many students are affected by the error.
Several parents with whom the Bendigo Advertiser spoke worried the mailing error could expose sensitive information about their children and that their reports may never be returned.
School reports contain a student’s grades, details about their academic performance and a summary of their attendance record.
They do not contain the addresses or contact details of the student.
Asked about the security of student data, a spokesman for the Victorian Department of Education and Training said: “We take the privacy of students very seriously and have a range of policies and procedures in place to protect it.”
He called the incident “very unfortunate” and apologised to Weeroona College families.
“The department’s privacy team are working with the school to have the reports returned and trust that parents will treat others’ information with care,” the spokesman said.
“We’re working with the school to find out what happened and will also visit the school to conduct privacy training.”
Were you affected? Let us know. Email mark.kearney@fairfaxmedia.com.au.
Mark Kearney
Journalist. Traveller. Pop culture connoisseur. Mark is passionate about education, the arts and social justice, especially stories affecting the LGBTI community.
Journalist. Traveller. Pop culture connoisseur. Mark is passionate about education, the arts and social justice, especially stories affecting the LGBTI community.
