Can a school put parent details in a school directory?

Yes, you can but parents or caregivers should have the opportunity to be left out of the directory if they choose to.

School directories can be extremely useful to parents and caregivers. As one correspondent to our office put it, they can be invaluable in a scheduling crisis, for arranging last-minute pickups or for alerting other parents to an issue like a cancelled playdate or ‘that it’s mufti day tomorrow!’. The primary value is in giving parents a way to contact each other should a need arise.

Under the Privacy Act, an agency should tell individuals what it intends to do with personal information when it collects it. However, this minimum legal requirement may not be enough to protect the vulnerable, or to maintain good relations in the community. For example, if someone has escaped from a domestic violence situation, publishing their contact details could put them at risk.

To manage this privacy risk, schools need to examine the process behind their directories. The most privacy friendly approach is to get the active consent of the parent, but low return rates often means this is unattractive. At the very least give parents or caregivers the opportunity to opt out. This could mean telling parents that their information will be published in the directory unless they explicitly say they don’t want it to be published.