Late last year, a very useful article was published in Staff Noticeboard in response to the NSWPPA Technology Reference Group working with ITD to support principals and schools to meet the requirements for using third party online applications. That article can be found HERE and has links to all of the resources and related documents you might need to make decisions about the use of third party online applications and how to seek informed parental consent.

If you are planning to use third-party online applications for the 2023 school year, the department recommends department-approved applications in the first instance. If you are considering online applications not offered by the department, it’s important to consider the security and commercial ramifications of using them. Schools can currently access online learning tools provided by the department free of charge, such as Google, Microsoft, Canva and Adobe. In addition to this, the Online Learning Tools Marketplace and the Administration Marketplace Panel for Schools enable schools to discover, select and purchase applications from a range of pre-qualified suppliers. These applications have enhanced security and data management which meet the standards required by the department.

If schools intend to engage with, or are currently using third-party apps such as Seesaw, ClassDojo and others, you must seek and retain evidence of parental consent to share their child’s personal information with each app. You do need to explicitly call out the data location and third-party sharing of data, and you need to provide this information in plain English when obtaining consent from parents. A link to a vendor’s policy is not sufficient.

The DoE Cyber Security team is able to assess applications on your behalf and are currently finalising a tool called AssessedIT. In the meantime, before this tool is available, they are regularly updating this spreadsheet with information about many widely used applications.

If you need to use an application that is not on either of the marketplaces or in AssessedIT (or the above spreadsheet in the meantime), you can request that the DoE Cyber Security team conduct an assessment on your behalf. They will then engage the vendor and upload the results. Email them directly at CyberSupport@det.nsw.edu.au.