Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) is being held from the 4th to the 10th of May 2014, to promote awareness of privacy issues and the importance of the protection of personal information. So in the spirit of PAW, we thought we would revisit some of the resources previously provided through the School Governance website, to assist non-government schools better understand and comply with their privacy obligations. The timing of PAW is of course exemplary, given the new privacy laws that commenced in Australia on 14 March 2014, which significantly impact how non-government schools manage the personal information they collect, deal with, store and distribute.Government schools can relax they are not caught by the new laws. Regular readers of the School Governance website are undoubtedly familiar with their school’s privacy obligations detailed in our articles 10 privacy risks school principals should know about, and the 10 steps to ensure compliance with the new Privacy Laws. We have also published a Briefing Paper for Non-Government Schools, which provides a plain English overview of the 13 Australian Privacy Principles and outlines some of the key issues that schools should consider in developing their privacy programs. If you have the time you can also watch our webinar presented by David Griffiths of CompliSpace, which walks you step by step through the issues. Remember that to be compliant with the new privacy laws takes a lot more than simply posting a privacy policy on your website. It requires a school to take a holistic and structured approach to the management of personal information. If you think that this is something that can be ignored you are wrong. Australians are becoming increasingly concerned with respect to how their personal information is managed by service providers in general. Schools in particular, face some very significant challenges given the extent of personal and sensitive information they hold with respect to a multitude of key stakeholders, including students, parents and alumni. Given the broad make up of the parent bodies of most schools, and the increasing levels of sophistication of teenagers in understanding their legal rights, you can be guaranteed that it is a matter of “when not if” your school’s privacy compliance will come under scrutiny. Don’t wait to be caught out and suffer the inevitable reputational damage. In the spirit of PAW ensure that your school is compliant.