The Consent Forms referred to in the recent edition of EC Extra (as listed below) from the NSW Department of Education are intended for those services that are required to report via the Annual Preschool Census. This refers to centre based community preschools and mobile preschools funded by the NSW Government under the Early Childhood Education Preschool Grants Program.
The purpose of the Annual Preschool Census is to provide data for government reporting purposes and to calculate service funding. Data collected in the annual census is submitted to the Australian Bureau of Statistics for inclusion in the publication Preschool Education, Australia http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/PrimaryMainFeatures/4240.0?OpenDocument
De-identified data may be used for research and evaluation purposes.
The NSW Department of Education must comply with the requirements of the State Records Act 1998 with regards to records security and storage.
The Department will update the EC Extra article to clarify the use of the Consent Forms.
For further enquiries, please contact Kristie Brown, Director Programs and Strategic Projects on (02) 9244 5722 or Kristie.brown9@det.nsw.edu.au.