Data protection and school advice needed please

[Schoolsbad]

Can anyone help please? I believe that my child's school has breached data protection here.

They have used my childs file to get my personal details and address to send a letter to me. The letter has nothing to do with my child or their education.

Am I right to think they are wrong?

[RedHelenB]

Is it a letter from the school or from an individual teacher/head?

Trying to think of a circumstance where it would be wrong tbh?

[tethersend]

Have you ever given your address details to the school?

Does your child live with you at the same address?

What was the letter about?

[Schoolsbad]

Letter from individual I.e. not a circular. Don't want to out myself but in theory should school have accessed child's file to get address etc when nothing to do with child or their education?

[Pooka]

Who has written to you?

What others have asked.

[Schoolsbad]

School only has my address as provided as childs address on file. It is the only way they would have accessed it.

[Pooka]

How do you know that the info came from the school? Rather than some other way?

Or does the letter state that the school gave info to the sender?

Sorry - not enough info to comment really on whether data protection issue.

[tethersend]

if you can say generally what the letter was about and whether your address is the same as the child's address, we will be able to ascertain if they have acted unprofessionally.

[onadifferentplanet]

Hard to say with no idea what the letter was about.Unlikely your child's personal file would have been looked at as schools would have easily accessible lists of contact details on their data base.

[tethersend]

x post.

School having your address and contact details on file is standard practice.

If you can let us know what the letter is about then we can comment.

[Schoolsbad]

Letter was from head re a complaint from a pupils grandmother re my parking in the disabled place outside school.

We have a blue badge but as my child is disabled( not the one at school, my younger child) grandparent believed I was using space incorrectly. Don't want to turn this into a blue badge, disabled discussion as not about that. My issue is the school getting involved.

The grandparent identified my child who is a pupil at school now I do not know whether they had my childs name or went by a description. Either way they used those details to get my address and head sent a letter regarding this.

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Did the school give your address to the person/organisation that sent the letter or did they forward it on the person/organisation's behalf? If they haven't disclosed your details to a third party, I doubt any rights under the Data Protection Act have been engaged.

[storminabuttercup]

I don't see the problem really. They didn't pass your details on. They have your address so they can contact you. I'm

[onadifferentplanet]

So you got a letter from the Head making you aware of comments made from a grandparent of a pupil in the school. As long as the grandparents were not given your address I cannot see that there is a data protection issue.

[Pooka]

If the letter is from the head teacher to you as a parent relating to a school issue (disabled space outside school rather than miles away and unrelated) then I can see no issue with this.

Importantly, the head did not pass info to third party. Wrote letter him/herself.

I would expect our head to do the same if behaviour just outside of school was an issue (not commenting on the parking issue as I don't know the ins and outs) but for example if parents complaining about foul language/parents parking over driveways next to school and so on.

I don't think the head accessing address database (which isn't going to be on main child file) to write to individual parents about issue that arise is unacceptable. Seems reasonable to me.

[Schoolsbad]

Ok, I will make my complaint about the school getting involved and sending out nasty letters not the fact that they accessed my information through my child's file which is not the purpose it was provided on.

God only knows why they saw fit to send a letter out regarding use of a public highway.

[owlelf]

If I have understood correctly, the letter was from the head, not an external party? The matter is not related to your child's education but it is related to the running of IMO.

I can see that you have valid reasons for using the disabled space as a child accompanying you at the time has a blue badge. However, the Head may not have been aware of this and so was just responding to the complaint.

[AnitaBlake]

It would have been breach of data protection if the HT had given the GP your address, but I don't see an issue with the school contacting you to establish facts regarding a complaint.

[owlelf]

Sorry that should read to the running of the school IMO

[owlelf]

If the letter was rude then that is a separate matter......

Could you not just respond saying that you have a blue badge so are entitled to use the space?

[notactuallyme]

I would photocopt or take a photo of the blue badge and send it to the head saying 'just in case you get further comments I am saving you a stamp'

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Schools have a legitimate (in my view) interest in problems with parking outside the school, because (say) parking on zigzag lines could put pupils' safety at risk.

Was the letter really 'nasty'? Or was it simply acting on the concerns that had been raised?

[StealthPolarBear]

ohh so she picked up the uniform or whatever, and got the school informed
that's naughty

[Pooka]

Easily resolved by clarifying situation. I don't understand your ire here.

Incidentally, new white paper now gives heads the explicit right to discipline children and get involved with incidents en route to and from school. Obviously this is not directly relevant to your situation but in the light of the complaint relating to parking to drop off/collect from school I can understand why the head is seeking clarification/facts relating to the complaint. Just as our head tries to arbitrate in disputes between neighbours of the school and parents who make their lives a misery by parking in/over driveways. Now the head doesn't have direct info re who the parents are so can only keep hammering away in newsletters. But if he did know who parent was I would imagine he would write directly.

[StealthPolarBear]

i dont think it was outside school

[StealthPolarBear]

oh sorry, it was