Dear Eddie

 

My name is Christine Roach, Board Secretary, Australian Curriculum,
Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). I refer to your request to
ACARA, below.

 

I confirm that your request is as follows: “I am requesting an email
distribution list of principals and assistant principals throughout the
country. Any information you can offer to help me obtain this request will
be greatly appreciated”. I am interpreting your request as a Freedom of
Information request, as it has been made through the Right to Know
website.

 

Prior to processing your FOI request, I provide the following information:

 

My interpretation of your request

 1. ACARA is not in possession of a complete set for all the data fields
that you are requesting. ACARA does not possess a list of principals
or vice principals for Australian primary and secondary schools.
 2. Whilst ACARA does possess a contact name, street address and email
address for each school – it may or may not be of the person in
charge. It may be the principal of the school. Alternatively, it could
relate to a school administrator. ACARA does not possess contact
details for members of school Boards, who could also be caught in the
scope of your request.
 3. Subject to your feedback, I am interpreting your request as being for
- names and contact details (school address and work email) of school
principals and assistant principals, linked with the relevant school,
and a description of whether this is a primary or secondary school;
and

4.    Whilst ACARA can process your request as a request under the Freedom
of Information Act 1982 (Cth), the outcome is unlikely to be favourable to
you (for reasons discussed further below).

 

Australian Schools List

5.    I advise that ACARA publishes a list of schools at
([1]http://asl.acara.edu.au/). This list will partially satisfy your
request. The published data fields on this website comprise: school name,
city, state, postcode, type and sector. I note that the data on the
Australian schools list can be downloaded in different formats.

 6. Also, you may find the information on this webpage
([2]http://asl.acara.edu.au/Register/NewCons...) helpful. This
webpage provides information on how you can send requests for data on
this website via software. This could be useful for internet-based
applications, as the data on the Australian Schools List is updated,
from time to time.

ACARA’s data access protocols

 7. For the data fields that ACARA holds, ACARA provides access to the
data requested by third parties under the [3]Data Access Protocols –
2015 revision. These Protocols have been endorsed by the [4]Education
Council (comprising Australia’s nine education ministers). ACARA is
bound to follow the directions of the Education Council: section 7(1)
of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority Act
2008 (Cth (ACARA Act).
 8. Under the Protocols, different considerations apply, depending on
whether or not each data field is published.

9.    Based on my interpretation of your request, ACARA holds some of the
contact information you have requested for some Australian schools (those
schools that have provided contact details for their principal, or
alternatively, their vice-principal). This data is unpublished.

10.  I advise that you will need to read the Protocols to ascertain
whether you are eligible to apply for this data. Clause 35 of the
Protocols sets out the categories of applicants that would be considered.

11.  For published data, applications are treated on a case by case basis.
If you are interested in requesting published data that is not on the
Australian Schools List, ACARA has a data access process at
([5]http://www.acara.edu.au/contact-us/acara...).

12. I note that ACARA was successful in an FOI matter before the
Administrative Appeals Tribunal in [6]Mark R Diamond and Chief
Executive Officer of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and
Reporting Authority [2014] AATA 707. The document in that case was the
My School database. Whilst different considerations apply, many of the
arguments that were accepted by the Tribunal in that case are also
applicable in relation to your request. Certainly, strong arguments
can be made that to provide you with unpublished data in contravention
of the Protocols would cause ACARA to breach s7(1) of the ACARA Act,
which would, or could reasonably be expected to, have a substantial
adverse effect on the proper and efficient conduct of the operations
of an agency (one of the conditional exemptions upheld by the Tribunal
in the Diamond matter).

In light of the above, please let me know whether you withdraw your FOI
request.

If you have any queries concerning ACARA’s data access program, it is best
to email [7][email address] as the team responding to data
requests manages this email account.

Please feel free to call me to discuss.

 

Kind regards

Christine

 

 

Christine Roach

Board Secretary

Office of the CEO

 

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority

Level 13, 280 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000

phone: +61 2 8098 3116

ACARA will improve the learning of all young Australians

 

Subscribe to [8]ACARA Update  Like us on [9]Facebook  Follow us on
[10]Twitter  See our [11]LinkedIn page

 

Please consider the environment before printing this email

 

References

Visible links
1. http://asl.acara.edu.au/
2. http://asl.acara.edu.au/Register/NewCons...
3. http://www.acara.edu.au/_resources/20150...
4. http://scseec.edu.au/
5. http://www.acara.edu.au/contact-us/acara...
6. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/a...
7. mailto:[email address]
8. http://www.acara.edu.au/news_media/subsc...
9. https://www.facebook.com/acara.edu.au
10. https://twitter.com/ACARAeduau
11. http://www.linkedin.com/company/668120?t...

Dear Eddie

 

I refer to your Freedom of Information request and my response dated 15
June 2018.

As I have not heard from you, unless you let me know to the contrary by
close of business on Monday 2 July 2018, I intend to treat your Freedom of
Information request as being withdrawn.

 

Kind regards

Christine

 

Christine Roach

Board Secretary

Office of the CEO

 

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority

Level 13, 280 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000

phone: +61 2 8098 3116 mobile: +61 438 662 659

 

ACARA will improve the learning of all young Australians

 

Subscribe to [1]ACARA Update  Like us on [2]Facebook  Follow us on
[3]Twitter  See our [4]LinkedIn page

 

Please consider the environment before printing this email

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.acara.edu.au/news_media/subsc...
2. https://www.facebook.com/acara.edu.au
3. https://twitter.com/ACARAeduau
4. http://www.linkedin.com/company/668120?t...