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Acceptable Use Agreements
The Department has provided these templates to assist schools to develop agreements around the acceptable use of internet, other online and digital technologies. Whilst not legal documents, they play an important part in describing how the school educates and supports its students as well as the expectations on students themselves to be safe, responsible and ethical users of digital technologies.
These agreements are templates. Schools can add and/or delete information where necessary to make them relevant to their school environment. It is recommended that teachers work through and discuss the behaviours described in the agreement with their students. Inclusion of student voice in the AUA can assist with addressing relevant issues and share knowledge of current technologies and social media sites.
Each template includes references and provides ideas for schools that are implementing 1-to-1 programs.
For more information, see Parent Payment Policy .
The AUA must be accurate, communicated across the community and reviewed regularly. Sending a copy of the AUA home or publishing it on the school website will assist parents to support their child's appropriate internet use at home.
Primary schools
Acceptable Use Agreement for Primary Schools - Guidelines and Template
Upper primary and secondary schools
Acceptable Use Agreement for Upper Primary and Secondary Schools - Guidelines and Template
Please note: For best results viewing and saving the PDFs, we recommend you first download and save it onto your desktop and then open it using the latest version of Abode Reader (free) or Adobe Acrobat. For more information, see:
Adobe.
Schools may wish to recommend that parents discuss, develop and implement a similar 'family agreement' at home. This will assist students to understand what is and isn't appropriate behaviour and that appropriate behaviour is expected everywhere and anytime they are online.
For more information, see
Parents and cybersafety.
Additional information
Schools should consider their Duty of Care responsibility to students using online and digital technologies that are provided at or by the school. The AUA is a school's statement of its Duty of Care. Therefore, a school is required to:
- add information about programs, online and digital technologies including social media tools specific to their school
- describe strategies designed to teach students to be safe, responsible and ethical users of digital technologies when they are not at school
- align expected behaviours described in the AUA with the school's Student Engagement Policy
- provide information to parents and/or guardians about the AUA, the school's programs and considerations for at home use of online and digital technologies
- retain a copy of the completed and signed AUA on file at the school.
Schools are reminded that students' signing of these agreements is aimed to raise awareness and support student learning. They are not legally binding on those students. There are however some online activities which are illegal and schools are required to report these to appropriate authorities.
Sharing personal information
When schools start new initiatives or plan to use new or updated systems that handle personal, sensitive or health information, a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is required. For more information see:
Privacy Impact Assessments