NCSE Data Protection Privacy Statement

Who are the National Council for Special Education?

The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) was set up to improve the delivery of education services to persons with special educational needs arising from disabilities with particular emphasis on children. The NCSE was first established as an independent statutory body by order of the Minister for Education and Science in December 2003.

What Does This Privacy Statement Mean?

The NCSE must comply with the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018 and any related or subsequent data protection and privacy legislation and amendments, as well as European Union Law including Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (known as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”)) and any subsequent implementing legislation and amendments (collectively referred to in this Privacy Policy as “Data Protection Legislation”).

The NCSE is committed to protecting your privacy. The NCSE will use your personal information in accordance with the Data Protection Legislation.

The purpose of this Privacy Statement is to clearly communicate to you:

what personal information the NCSE collects
why the NCSE collects this information
how the NCSE handles or uses this information
how long the NCSE will retain this information
who the NCSE will share this information with
your rights in relation to the personal information that the NCSE holds, including your rights to request access, rectification or deletion of this information and
how you can contact the NCSE in respect of this information.

It is the aim of this Privacy Statement to give you a better and more complete understanding of how the NCSE collects and uses your personal data.

Why does the NCSE collect data?

The NCSE is mandated by statute to plan and co-ordinate the provision of education and support services to children with special educational needs (Section 20 of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004). The NCSE are obliged to collect certain information to fulfil its legal obligations under the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004. This is pursuant to Article 6(1)(c) of the GDPR which enables the NCSE as a controller to lawfully process personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the NCSE is subject.

What Data Do We Collect?

The collects data directly from schools and from the completed Notice forms provided to Parent(s)/Guardian(s) and teachers in respect of students and school employees including teachers. We collect the following data:

Data collected in respect of students:

Name	Date of birth
Address	Gender
PPSN	Name of parent, or guardian
Telephone number of parent, or guardian	Email address of parent, or guardian
Name of School/education setting	Address of school/education setting
School roll number	Telephone number of school
Email address of school	Name of Principal
Date of enrolment/confirmation of attendance	Date on which the student left school
Class level	Access to special education teaching support
Access to SNA support	Details provided in respect of transport application(s)
Details provided in respect of assistive technology application(s)	Details provided in respect of application for home tuition grant
Special class enrolment, including the type of special class	Special school enrolment, including the type of special school
School attendance, including attendance on a reduced school day	School reports
Disability, if applicable	Learning/care needs
Mobility issues	Medical condition(s)
Professional reports, including clinical and educational psychology reports	Medical reports or assessments
Behavioral plans	Student Support Plans, or equivalent
Records of reviews conducted in relation to the student’s supports

Data collected in respect of school employees:

Forename	Surname
PPSN	Teaching Council registration details
The teacher’s payroll number	Telephone number
The type of school in which the employee works	The school’s roll number
The role of the employee in the school	Bank account details

Where the NCSE collects your personal information to fulfil the NCSE’s statutory obligations, failure by you to provide the above-mentioned personal information may render the NCSE unable to provide the services being the subject of such statutory obligation.

How Do We Use the Data?

This data enables the NCSE to plan, co-ordinate and review the provision of additional education supports to students and teachers in line with Department of Education policy. Examples of the co-ordination of those additional education supports and services for students and teachers NCSE include:

Assistance in relation to school placement, including special class and special school placement;
Special Education Teaching
Special Needs Assistant support
Visiting Teacher Supports for deaf/hard of hearing and blind/visually impaired students;
Teacher professional learning and in school advisor support
Behaviour for Learning Support
School Inclusion Model, (SIM) In-School Therapy Project (ISTP)
Assistive Technology for Students with Special Educational Needs
Transport for Students with Special Educational Needs
Home Tuition Grant Applications
Section 29 Appeals
Applications to Education Centres for supports and advice in respect of individual students and
Research

How long is the data retained?

The NCSE Record Retention and Disposal Schedule sets out the retention period for all personal data kept and the procedures in place to implement this policy.

How does the NCSE secure the data?

To protect student, teacher and other school employee data, the NCSE actions security measures:

Ensuring Data is stored on encrypted servers
Limiting access to those who can access data
Implementing ICT security features that are installed and in place to reduce the risk of data identify theft or hacking

Sharing of Data

The NCSE may share your data with other public bodies and authorised third parties such as the Department of Education for the provision of special education supports such as transport, assistive technology and home tuition.

In certain circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain data held by us with the Chief State Solicitors Office or the Attorney Generals Office as a result of legal proceedings where the NCSE is complying with legal obligations such as a court order.

The NCSE may compile statistics for the development of research and policy advice. All such data will be anonymised and will not include any personally identifying data, or any anonymised data that can be combined with other data and used to identify you. We may from time to time share such data with authorised third parties or other Public Bodies.

Data will only be shared and used within the authority of Data Controller/ Sharing Agreements

Individual Rights under GDPR

As a data subject, you have the following rights under the GDPR, which this Privacy Statement and our use of personal data have been designed to uphold:

The Right of Access: Subject to certain conditions, you are entitled to have access to your personal data which we hold;
The Right to Rectification: You may challenge the accuracy or completeness of personal data which we process about you. If it is found that personal data is inaccurate, you are entitled to have the inaccurate data removed, corrected or completed, as appropriate
The Right to be Erasure (right to be forgotten): Subject to certain conditions, you are entitled, on certain grounds, to have your personal data erased g. where you think that the information we are processing is inaccurate, or the processing is unlawful
The Right to Restriction: Subject to certain conditions, you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data
The Right to Object: Subject to certain conditions, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data
The Right of Data Portability: Subject to certain conditions, you have the right to receive the data which you have provided to us and which is processed by us by automated means, in a commonly-used machine readable format and
The Right of Withdrawal: You have the right to withdraw your consent to any processing for which you have previously given that consent.

If you have any cause for complaint about the use of your personal data, please contact us using the email address below. All complaints will be fully investigated. If we are unable to help, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission.

How Can You Access Your Data?

You have the right to ask for a copy of your personal data held by us and how it is used. Requests for records can be made by contacting the email address dataprotection@ncse.ie or by telephone at 01 6033433.

Contacting the NCSE

If you have any questions about the use of data by the NCSE or this privacy statement, please contact dataprotection@ncse.ie or by post to NCSE Data Protection Officer, Mill Street, Trim, Co Meath C15 P2KC.

Changes to Our Privacy Statement

This statement was last updated on 01 September 2023. It may be updated from time to time.