Prospective parents and pupils have rights over their data including how it is stored and used. Does your school have clear guidelines for dealing with applicants’ data? For example what do you do with an applicant’s data if they don’t end up attending your school?

The following tips will help you simplify the school application process and make it easy for applicants to understand how you manage their data.

First off, make everything clear at the outset. We strongly recommend that when an application is being submitted you use a suitable way to communicate to the applicants that you will destroy any of their data if they are not offered or do not take up a place at the school.

In order to keep your promise you will need to be able to:

* Identify and remove any physical or electronically held personal information provided as part of the application process

* Be confident you can demonstrate your school is robustly implementing a policy that upholds the rights of applicants regarding personal data gathered during the process

If you’re using an MIS system here’s some guidance:

* Use “pre-admissions groups” to process admissions

* Create intake groups based on years, for example September 2018, September 2019

* Organise documents and all other data based on these silos of information

* Provide a privacy policy at the point of application

* Simplify the process by stating you only retain information up to the point of admissions

* Each September destroy all electronic and physical data of applicants who are not starting at your school from the intake year

And Don’t Forget:

* Remember to uphold the right of applicants to withdraw consent

* Remind applicants that at any time they can write to request to withdraw from the applications process and for any personal information you hold to be removed

Applications are just one aspect of school life which must be embraced under your data protection strategy. Get in touch for support on creating a privacy culture in your school.