How to delete student data – Example: Austria

Introduction /legal situation

The legal situation regarding deleting personal student data can be very different depending on the region. This is why we implemented a solution that's as universal as possible to support your work.  

We will give Austria as an example here.

According to para. 77 of the Austrian school education act, student data shall be saved and deleted, respectively, based on the grade/class level they attended. After a class has had its last school year, data shall be saved for 3 years and after these 3 years, the data shall be permanently deleted.

Note:
It is not clearly defined how the data of students who repeat 1-2 school years shall be treated. The considerations seem to be based on physical class registers and not on databases where you delete student master data and the respective linked data.

Possible Approach

Let’s assume our example school has four class levels. In summer 2020, at the end of the school year 2019/2020 the personal data of the students who had their last school year 3 years ago need to be deleted, i.e. the fourth grades/class levels of the school year 2016/2017. These are to a great extent the students who were in third grade in the school year 2015/2016 provided there were no changes of class, no students left and no students joined different classes of this grade. 

The school, i.e. the administration of the school, is responsible for deleting the personal data of the respective students. With the new features of WebUntis 2021.0.0 you can do this without manually deleting all student data linked to a student master data element.

When you go to: “Master data > Students” you will find the list of students you are already familiar with providing you with the new filter possibilities and an improved delete button feature.

“Exit until” filter

Provided that the exit dates are maintained properly, you can filter across classes and across years, and students who, for example, repeat a year and therefore leave school later are not listed.

1. The “Exit until” filter lists all student who left school at the given date or before.
2. “Select all” by checking the top box. If necessary, you can deselect individual students.
3. “Delete”: opens the confirmation dialogue described below.

Filters: “School year”, “Class”

If you do not set an exit date or have not set an exit date in the past, the filters "School year" and "Class" can help you with selecting the students you need to filter.

1. We start with the school year 2016/2017 and select 4-HELE
2. because these are the students who left the school 3 years ago.
3. Select all or deselect exceptions.
4. “Delete”: opens the confirmation dialogue described below.

• You need to repeat this process for all classes of the fourth grade of the school year 2016/2017.
• This process needs to be repeated for the third grade for school year 2015/2016 and so on and so forth (for the second grade of 2014/2015 and for the first grade of 2013/2014) in order to not forget any students who left in or after the respective school years.

• At the beginning of this confirmation dialogue it is explained which data can be linked to a student:

master data, WebUntis user, WebUntis Drive links, Untis Messenger user, sent messages, links to received messages, messenger group memberships, student group memberships, class memberships, links to lessons and exams, marks, bookings, links to parents and company addresses, personal class register entries, links to general class register entries, abscences, excuses, exemptions, seating plans and class register services

• Then all selected students are listed by name once again.
• The “Delete all” button is only activated after you check the first box:

In most cases, the second box will be checked, as well. (Exceptions: for example: vocational schools which will continue to use the company’s user even if no students of the respective company are linked to the user at this moment in time.)