The Department of Education (the department) values the principles and practices of openness and accountability to its clients, staff and members of the public about departmental operations and record-keeping.
Information held by the department is released administratively as a matter of course, unless there is a good reason not to.
If you are unable to find the information you are seeking on our publication scheme, disclosure log or Open Data Portal, please contact the department to discuss whether the information is able to be released under our Administrative Access Scheme.
If you are seeking access to documents for a current court proceeding and the department (State of Queensland) is not a party to the proceedings, then we recommend you serve a court ordered request such as a subpoena or summons. If the proceeding is not yet set down for trial, then you may consider serving a notice of non-party disclosure or lodge a request under section 134A of the
Evidence Act 1977 (Qld) if the proceeding relates to a civil matter. For further information, please refer to information below about
court ordered requests and other types of legislative requests for documents.
Due to the size and complexity of the department, a large number of documents are held at various locations.
There may be difficulty with obtaining school student records during the school holiday period and further time may be required to process your request for documents. For further information about the school holiday period, please refer to the
Queensland state school calendar.
Administrative release is an informal process by which you request the information and it is provided directly to you by the relevant departmental business unit or state school under the department’s Administrative Access Scheme.
For other records, you can request access under the department’s Administrative Access Scheme for central and regional offices. Charges for other records are listed in Attachment 4 of the document.
You should request administrative release of department’s records first. If you make an application under the
Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) or
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) that the department determines could be satisfied by administrative release, you may be referred to this process instead.
How to make a 'non-personal' RTI application
If you wish to seek access to documents that do not concern your personal information and the information you are looking for is not available online, you can request the information under the
Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) using the
e-RTI online form.
Alternatively you can download the
Right to Information and Privacy Access Application Form (PDF, 207KB) located on the
Queensland Government Right to Information and Information Privacy website and lodge it with the following relevant contact:
Manager, Information Release
Legal Services
Department of Education
PO Box 15033
CITY EAST QLD 4002
Phone: (07) 3513 5380
Email:
rti@qed.qld.gov.au
Personal information is information or an opinion, including information or an opinion forming part of a database, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.
If you want to couple your non-personal application with an additional request for documents containing your personal information in the same application, you can apply under the
Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) for the entire set.
Please note though, there are
no application fees or processing charges if you apply for your personal information under the
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld). There are application fees and charges if you apply under the
Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld).
If the information you request is not related to your personal information, you must pay an application fee. This fee must be paid before your application can be processed. You may also be charged for processing the application and for making copies of documents. You should refer to the fees and charges set out on the Queensland Government
Right to Information and Information Privacy page for further information.
All applications under the
Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) must:
- be in the approved form and accompanied by the application fee
- give sufficient information concerning the document to enable a responsible officer of the department to identify the documents
- state an address to which notices under the
Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) may be sent
- (if you are also seeking access to your personal information) provide evidence of your identity within 10 business days
- (if you are an agent applying on behalf of someone else) provide evidence of your identity and evidence of your authorisation (e.g. court order) within 10 business days.
How to make an application for access to or amendment of your 'personal information'
Personal information access application
Personal information about individuals is not published by the department in accordance with the
Information Privacy Act 2009. If you wish to access documents held by the department containing your personal information or if you wish to amend the personal information that the department holds about you, we recommend you apply under the
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld).
Personal information is information or an opinion, including information or an opinion forming part of a database, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.
You can request access to your personal information under the
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) using the
e-RTI online form
Alternatively you can download the
Right to Information and Privacy Access Application Form (PDF, 207KB) located on the
Queensland Government Right to Information and Information Privacy website and lodge it with the following relevant contact:
Manager, Information Release
Legal Services
Department of Education
PO Box 15033
CITY EAST QLD 4002
Phone: (07) 3513 5380
Email:
rti@qed.qld.gov.au
All applications under the
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) must:
- be in the approved form
- give sufficient information concerning the document to enable a responsible officer of the department to identify the document
- state an address to which notices under the
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) may be sent
- provide evidence of your identity within 10 business days
- (if you are an agent applying on behalf of someone else) provide evidence of your identity and evidence of your authorisation (e.g.. court order) within 10 business days.
Personal information amendment application
Under the
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld), you may apply for an amendment to a document that contains your personal information, if that document contains information that is inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading.
Your application should specify:
- what particulars you wish amended
- why you believe the information to be incomplete, incorrect, out-of-date or misleading
- the amendments you wish to make
- your address and telephone number so you can be advised of the result of your application.
You can download the
Information Privacy Personal Information Amendment Application and lodge it with the following relevant contact:
Manager, Information Release
Legal Services
Department of Education
PO Box 15033
CITY EAST QLD 4002
Phone: (07) 3513 5380
Email:
rti@qed.qld.gov.au
How long will it take to process an information access or amendment request?
You will receive acknowledgement of receipt of your request within 15 business days.
The department is required to respond to your application within 25 business days of receipt of a valid application. If consultation with another person or entity is required under the
Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) or
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld), another 10 business days is permitted to process the application. You will be advised if consultation is necessary.
Also, if the decision-maker needs more time to consider your application for other reasons, you will be notified and your permission will be requested to extend the processing period.
Applications made on behalf of children
Section 25 of the
Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) and section 45 of the
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) provides that a parent or guardian of a child may make an application on behalf of the child for access to documents. In making an application under the
Right to information Act 2009 (Qld) or
Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld), the parent or guardian must:
- specify in writing that the application is made on behalf of the child
- state their name and the name of the child
- provide documents proving his or her identity and evidence of their relationship to the child.
Reporting of Right to Information and Information Privacy applications
The department promotes a culture of openness and respect for the independence of Right to Information and Information Privacy decision-makers and follows a 2-stage process for reporting Right to Information and Information Privacy applications and/or decisions to the Minister and Senior Executive (including the Director-General).
Read more about the department's
reporting processes.
Procedures and Policies relating to information and data
Court ordered requests and other types of legislative requests
The Information Release team in Legal Services accepts service of and deals with all court ordered requests to produce documents such as subpoenas, summonses as well as other types of requests such as notices of non-party disclosure and requests made under section 134A of the
Evidence Act 1977 (Qld).
Addressee and service requirements
All requests for the production of documents must be addressed to the Director-General, Department of Education as custodian of all departmental documents.
Service is accepted by email at
rti@qed.qld.gov.au unless personal service is required by law.
Service by email at
rti@qed.qld.gov.au is accepted for subpoenas for production of documents issued by the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia in family law proceedings. Hard copies of subpoenas and other requests (where service is accepted by email) do not need to be provided in person or by post.
Personal service is required for a notice of non-party disclosure requiring production of documents issued under the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld). You should contact the Information Release team before attending at the Department of Education to arrange a suitable time for personal service. You can contact the Information Release team either by email at
rti@qed.qld.gov.au or by phone (07) 3513 5380.
You should note subpoenas issued in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia in family law proceedings must be served at least 10 days before production under the subpoena is required.
If you require a person such as a teacher to give oral evidence, you must address the request to the individual person and serve the request personally at their usual place of work. You should contact their workplace to arrange a suitable time for service.
Relevance
To assist the department with timely document production, your request must respect the relevant rules of the court, tribunal or commission and only seek those documents relevant to the matters in dispute in the proceedings, seek specific documents only and allow at least 20 days to process the request, unless a shorter statutory timeframe or order applies. The department may object to requests that are broad or do not abide by the relevant rules and general law.
Sufficient information must be given to allow relevance to be assessed including identifying the matters in dispute in the proceedings and an explanation of how the documents sought are relevant to the matters in dispute. For criminal proceedings, the information should include a copy of the bench charge sheet or at least a description of the charges to be answered by the defendant. For civil proceedings, a copy of the pleadings (claim, defence, reply, etc.) must be provided.
Location of department documents
You should also note that due to the size and complexity of the department, a large number of documents are held at various locations. There may be difficulty with obtaining student school records during the school holiday period and further time may be required to process your request during this time. For further information about the Queensland state school holiday period please refer to the
Queensland state school calendar.
Conduct money / reasonable costs incurred
Conduct money may be payable when you request documents for court proceedings.
Where conduct money is required, the department is not required to comply unless the conduct money has been paid.
The current amount for conduct money is $62.
In addition to conduct money, you may need to pay the reasonable costs of the department complying with the request.
Payment by EFT is preferred
Account Name: Department of Education
BSB: 064013
Account no. 10001196
ABN: 76 337 613 647
*Payments made to Department of Education by EFT must include the following information: LS - court ref number - law firm name