Part 6. Privacy and safety in practice

6.6 Retention and privacy requests

Version 1.0 ·Updated 2026-10-07

Next reviewed by 2027-04-07.

Written for a school's staff learning how Kestrel works, the trainers who teach them, and the families using the portal.

How long each kind of record is kept, and how the school records and answers a privacy request.

Written forPrincipal and executiveITRegistrarFront office

What it covers

A school keeps a child's records for set periods, and a family or former student can ask what the school has. Kestrel stores the periods on one screen and the requests on another.

How long records are kept

The screen "Retention" is read-only. It says "These periods are obligations, so none of them can be changed here. Each night at half past two, in this school's own time zone, records that have been deleted and are past their period are disposed of, unless a legal hold covers them. A record that is closed but not deleted is kept until someone deletes it, unless the area that owns it deletes it after a period the school sets there." The table "Retention classes" has the columns Class, "What the period rests on" and "Kept for".

Class	Kept for
Child safety	45 years from date of birth
Academic record	25 years from birth
Health record	25 years from birth
Attendance register	7 years
NCCD evidence	7 years
Audit trail	7 years
Operational	7 years from closure unless stated
Immunisation	3 years
Enquiry only	2 years

A record that falls under more than one class is kept for the longest period. Removing a record from view is not disposal, because a removed record stays until its period ends.

Retention
/app/settings/retention
The periods each class of record is kept for.

Records of families who never started

The screen "Applicant records" sets how long the school keeps the record of a family who enquired or applied and never started. Each period is between 30 days and 7 years, and an enquiry that never became an application is kept 3 years at most. Where the school has saved nothing, Kestrel keeps the details 90 days and the record 2 years. "Days until the details go" covers the documents the family sent, the health and learning answers and the interview notes, and "Days until the record goes" covers the application itself, the child's name and the family's contact details.

The pass runs on the first of each month, and a fortnight before it the registrar and the privacy officer are emailed the counts, which name no child. The screen "Upcoming removals" lists each record with what the next pass takes and the day it falls on, and Standing reads Due, "Not yet due", "Kept back" or Done. "What the pass could not finish" lists each record a statutory period, a hold or another part of the record kept, and a record already sent to the school's SIS, which is removed there by hand.

Open "Applicant records" under Settings and fill the four day counts.
Press Save. Kestrel says "The periods are saved."
Press "See what is due to be removed" to read what the next pass takes.
To keep one record, open the application, open its Removal section and press "Keep this record back". A legal hold stands until somebody lifts it, and a keep names the day it ends, at most twelve months from today.
On a family's request to destroy a child's information, open the child's record, open "Destruction request" and press "Destroy this record". The removal runs that night and Kestrel lists what it had to keep.

Applicant records
/app/settings/applicant-records
How long the school keeps the record of a family who never started.
Needs enrolment.removal.read
Upcoming removals
/app/enrolment/removals
What the next pass takes, and what it could not finish.
Needs enrolment.removal.read

Privacy requests

The screen "Privacy requests" is the school's register. The principal records a request when it arrives, by any channel: Email, Post, Phone or "In person". The kinds are "A copy of the record", "A correction", "Deletion", "A question", "A complaint", "How a child's information is handled" and "Destruction of a child's information". The person who asked may be "The person themselves", "A parent", "A guardian", "A solicitor or advocate", "The school" or "Somebody who did not give a name".

The school commits to acknowledging within five business days and answering within thirty days. Four kinds can be extended once to sixty days with a notice. The screen shows each row with its due dates, as "Due in" a number of days or "Overdue by" a number of days, and counts "Requests", "Outstanding" and "Past a date".

Press "Record a request".
Choose "What was asked for", "Who asked" and "How it arrived", and fill "The day it arrived".
Press "Record it". Kestrel says "The request is recorded, with the dates it's due by."
As it moves, press "Open", choose "Where it has got to" and say what was done.
To take longer, press "Extend to" before the first answer date, and give the day the notice went out and why. An Australian school may take up to sixty days from arrival, and a school in England two more calendar months.

A request moves through Received, Acknowledged, Answered, Refused or Withdrawn. A refusal to destroy a child's information needs a stated ground, such as that destroying it would be unlawful or that it is in a Commonwealth record.

Record and answer a privacy request. Record and answer a privacy request
Extend the time to answer a request. Extend the time to answer a request

Privacy requests
/app/settings/privacy-requests
Record a request and track the dates the school owes.
Needs tenant.privacy.manage
Questions and complaints
/privacy-questions
The public page that tells a family what they can ask for and what happens next.
Privacy Policy
/privacy
The school's policy for families.

Training notes

Anyone who receives a privacy request at the front desk passes it to the principal the same day, because the five-day clock starts when it arrives.
Show families the "Questions and complaints" page when they ask how to raise something.
Explain that nothing is deleted on request until its retention period allows it.