Connections and access
Is Te Rito compulsory?
No. 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 every learner 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 no longer in scope for the programme and it will be decommissioned in early 2025. When it was developed it was initially piloted with us because Te Rito enabled data in the sLSR to be shared across Kāhui Ako.
Can early learning services use Te Rito?
Early learning services that participated in the early-stage rollout continue to have access to Te Rito. We're not currently extending Te Rito to early learning but are working on including early learning data from Ministry systems.
Security and privacy
Is Te Rito secure?
You can be confident that Te Rito is safe and secure.
- It meets the requirements of the Privacy Act 2020 - Te Rito's Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) was approved in 2024.
- It meets stringent international security standards - Edsby, the vendor who owns the platform supporting Te Rito, has ISO27001 Certification for their Information Security Management System - an independently audited assessment that gives assurance that Te Rito is managed to industry best practices. Edsby also has Safer Technologies for Schools (ST4S) badging.
- It undergoes regular security testing - Regular and comprehensive security testing is performed 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.
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.