Connections and access
How are decisions made on where to focus the rollout?
Ngā Rau Whakatupu guides where to focus next, including how and when to onboard schools or groups of schools that are keen to start using Te Rito ahead of scaled deployment in 2025.
Is Te Rito compulsory?
Te Rito is not compulsory. Kura and schools are free to decide whether to use Te Rito but if they decide not to, we still encourage them to connect their SMS.
How is schools' access controlled?
Educators access Te Rito via the Ministry's Education Sector Logon (ESL).
Do we have to pay to use Te Rito?
Te Rito is free to kura and schools. The Ministry purchased licenses so that information follows learners through their education.
When will parents and whānau have access to Te Rito?
Enabling parents and whānau access is included in future phases and will involve testing access as part of a pilot.
Is access to the standardised Learning Support Register (sLSR) still available?
The sLSR is not currently in scope for the programme. When it was developed it was piloted with Te Rito as part of the early-stage rollout because Te Rito enabled data in the sLSR to be shared across Kāhui Ako. The sLSR is still available to the kura and schools that took part in the early-stage rollout.
We know there is strong support for the learning support register and are exploring options.
Can early learning services use Te Rito?
Early learning services that participated in the early-stage rollout continue to have access to Te Rito. While we're not currently extending Te Rito to the early learning sector, we're working to include early learning data from Ministry systems.
Student Management Systems
Can all SMS connect to Te Rito?
Currently Edge, eTAP, Kamar and Helix have one-way connections to Te Rito and we’re working with others on their integrations to connect using secure API-based connection technology.
Will schools still need their SMS?
Yes. Schools will continue to use their SMS for creating student records, inputting learner data and other administrative functions the SMS offers. The SMS continues to be the official source of learner information.
Can a school use Te Rito if it doesn’t have an SMS?
While ākonga and learner information could flow through to Te Rito via ENROL (for kura and schools without an SMS), functionality would be very limited without the additional data an SMS collects, reducing the benefits Te Rito brings to kura and schools. Manual steps would also be required to manage access for staff, ākonga and learners.
Security and privacy
Is Te Rito secure?
You can be confident that Te Rito is safe and secure. We paused Te Rito in 2021 to address cyber security concerns with SMS that connect to Te Rito. The issues were resolved by enabling learner information to flow one way from SMS into Te Rito’s secure database.
The Te Rito platform meets stringent international privacy and security standards - Edsby, the vendor who owns the platform supporting Te Rito, has ISO27001 Certification for their Information Security Management System. This is an independently audited assessment and gives assurance that Te Rito is managed to industry best practices. Edsby also has Safer Technologies for Schools (ST4S) badging.
Te Rito meets the requirements of the Privacy Act 2020 - The Te Rito team is updating the Privacy Impact Assessment in consultation with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and will continue to do so on a regular basis. A plain language summary for teachers, parents, and students will be made available.
Regular security testing - Te Rito performs regular and comprehensive security testing to provide extra assurance to students, parents, and schools that information is safe, protected and only shared with the right people at the right time.
Is Te Rito's data encrypted?
Yes. All data sent between Te Rito and a user or another data store (such as an SMS) is encrypted in transit and when stored in the Te Rito database.
Who owns the platform and what steps have they taken to protect student privacy?
Edsby owns the platform supporting Te Rito and has signed the (US) Student Privacy pledge Signatories 2.0 - Pledge to Parents and Students
The US based Common Sense Privacy programme assesses education technology against good privacy and security practice. Edsby was last reviewed in February 2023, achieving a Basic Evaluation Pass with a score of 93%, which is considered very high.
Edsby - Privacy Evaluation (commonsense.org)
All Edsby’s work with New Zealand kura, schools and the Ministry demonstrates that Edsby upholds these pledges.
How are individual rights to sharing information, or choosing not to, being addressed?
We will shortly complete a comprehensive Privacy Impact Assessment that includes making plain language summaries of technical security and privacy information available to help learners and whānau parents understand how their child's information is safely managed in Te Rito.
We will also provide advice and guidance to schools, including how you could reflect the purpose of Te Rito in enrolment forms or privacy statements.
Can a parent see what information about their child is in Te Rito?
Te Rito is designed to meet the requirements of the Privacy Act 2020. Parents have a right under the Privacy Act to access information held on their child and can ask their kura or school to provide them with a copy of data held in Te Rito on their child.
If information about a child is inaccurate, can parents or caregivers have it corrected?
Information in Te Rito is provided by kura or schools. If information about a child in Te Rito is incorrect, their parent or caregiver should contact their kura or school to have it updated.
Data management
Will Te Rito include pastoral and behavioural?
Yes. Ngā Rau Whakatupu and our privacy experts are working on how to ensure this can be done in ways that meet our primary aim of protecting the mana of the child and whānau.
Does the Ministry have access to data in Te Rito?
The Ministry does not have access to data in Te Rito, except for those providing technical support to ensure the integrity, security and safety of the platform.
Only authorised users have access to data held in Te Rito and access is tightly controlled by the Te Rito Data Kaitiakitanga Group.