Some families have a ritual of going to consult the list of students by class, posted in front of the schools a few days before the start of the school year. But this year, parents will not find the precious list. Schools are prohibited from displaying the names of their students in public. We explain why.
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As the start of the school year approaches, many families have a ritual of going to check the list of students, generally posted in front of nursery and primary schools a few days before the start of classes. It’s an opportunity to discover your child’s class and teacher or to check that your child will be with his or her friends.
But this year, parents will not find the precious list. Schools are now prohibited from displaying the names of their students in public. You will then have to wait until Monday, September 2, the first day back at school, to find out which class your child is assigned to.
Since 2018, the display of personal information has been regulated by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This prohibits “unauthorized disclosure of personal data transmitted“. Before the start of the school year, several academies wrote to school principals to remind them that the name and date of birth of their students are part of this protected data.
Except in specific cases, such as the transmission of information to local authorities or the National Education administration, teachers are therefore required to keep the list of their students confidential.The norm is non-transmission, transmission is a duly recorded exception“, recalls the FSU-SNUipp, a teachers’ union.
It is therefore forbidden to display the names of schoolchildren on the public highway, for example on the wall or the school gate. The possibility remains of revealing them within the premises of the establishment, away from the gaze of passers-by. The list can be displayed “if it is only visible from inside the school“, but not “if a random passerby can have access to it“, explains the Lille Academy on its website.
Some schools have chosen to inform families about their child’s placement by email, others to only publicly display the students’ first names. Still others have continued the tradition of displaying student lists, but this practice is set to disappear as the GDPR rules become known.
