Child Link

Roles and responsibilities of school staff as Child Link Users

Users have access to confidential child information relevant to their school or service. School principals nominate eligible professionals within their school to become Child Link Users. Schools are permitted to have a maximum of 7 school staff as Child Link Users (in addition to the principal). School Users are entitled to 'service-level' access, which means they will only be able to view information about children enrolled in their school and limited entries for the students’ siblings.

Schools with multiple campuses are encouraged to take advantage of the maximum User capacity to enable the benefits of Child Link for all students.

All school-based Child Link Users have obligations to:

• complete mandatory training before gaining access to Child Link
• hold a valid Working with Children Clearance (WWCC) or Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) Registration
• only access Child Link for the purpose of providing education and care and related services to children enrolled at their school, or to monitor and plan services for children enrolled at their school
• comply with the Child Link Secretary’s Guidelines (PDF), the Child Link terms of use, Child Link User Practice Guide.

Schools can request and share information with other prescribed organisations under the Child Information Sharing Scheme in relation to information they have accessed on Child Link to support student wellbeing and safety. Professionals will also continue to assess or manage family violence risk to a child, in line with the Child and Family Violence Information Sharing Schemes and in accordance with the department’s related policies.

Schools must continue to:

• share information as appropriate in accordance with other applicable laws, such as when making a mandatory report or when sharing information with external services under existing arrangements and mechanisms. Child Link does not limit these existing permissions and obligations
• follow departmental polices concerning information management, privacy and security.

Pre-requisites for becoming a Child Link User

A Child Link User in a government school must:

• be employed by the school as either:
  • a registered teacher employed or engaged to provide instruction or other education services to students at the school
  • a person employed or engaged to provide health or welfare services for students at the school (that is, education support staff or health and wellbeing professional)
• hold either a valid WWCC under the Worker Screening Act 2020 or VIT Registration under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006
• have completed the following pre-requisite training (and received a training receipt number):
  • Users enrol in training on the Information Sharing and MARAM Online Learning System, and complete Child Link User Training – All workforces if they have previously completed Information Sharing Reforms training, or
  • Info Sharing + Child Link – Education if the User needs to complete both Information Sharing training and Child Link training
• accept the Child Link terms of use
• only access Child Link for the purpose of providing education and care and related services to children enrolled at their school; and to monitor and plan services for children enrolled at their school.

Ongoing obligations for Child Link Users

Child Link Users agree to the terms of use to access and use Child Link. The terms of use cover:

• obligations as a Child Link User
• the collection, use and disclosure of your User information, including User name, role, organisation and WWCC or VIT Registration number to specific third parties, for the purpose of enabling and managing User access. This is to ensure that only appropriate people are permitted to access and use Child Link, thereby safeguarding the confidential information in Child Link.

School staff who are Child Link Users must:

• perform Child Link functions, in accordance with the Child Link User Practice Guidance, including:
  • provide a unique and secure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) code to login to Child Link
  • have a current and valid WWCC/VIT (the number and expiry of this will be checked for validity by Child Link each time the User logs in, and if it is not current, the User will not be granted access)
  • update passwords at least every 90 days (as prompted by the system)
  • inform their principal (as the school’s Authoriser), if their circumstances change and access to Child Link is no longer required – for example, when they change roles within the organisation (such as a secondment) for a period greater than 90 days, take extended leave, such as long-service leave, parental leave, or a sabbatical for a period greater than 90 days. * For Users who have been removed from Child Link for a period of longer than 12 months, it is recommended that they complete training again before being reinvited to Child Link
  • inform their principal if they no longer hold a valid WWCC (due to exclusion, interim exclusion, suspension, revocation, or expiry) or VIT Registration (due to suspension, cancellation, or expiry)
  • inform their principal if they plan to leave their school
  • inform their principal if they change roles in their school into a role that does not require Child Link access
  • inform their principal if they do not or no longer meet the pre-requisites to be a Child Link User
  • inform their principal if they are no longer in circumstances where it is appropriate to have access to Child Link (for example, a conflict of interest or misconduct has been evidenced)
  • inform their principal if they, by accessing Child Link, pose an unacceptable risk of harm to any person
  • inform their principal if they meet the pre-requisites for restriction of access, as outlined below (a principal as the school’s Authoriser may also remove a Child Link User from Child Link for these reasons)
• only access Child Link for the purpose of providing education and care and related services to children enrolled at their school, and to monitor and plan services for children enrolled in their school
• only disclose Child Link information to persons employed or engaged by the same organisation as the Child Link User for a purpose as described in the previous dot-point, or as in accordance with the Child Information Sharing Scheme
• not take screen shots or photos of information on Child Link or copy information directly from Child Link into other documents or platforms. However, schools can update a student’s record on CASES21 as a result of information they have obtained from accessing Child Link in accordance with existing departmental policies.

Child Link User access; locked, restricted, and removed

Child Link Users’ access can be:

• locked as part of the User Access Review process
• removed by their principal as the school’s Authoriser
• restricted by the department.

User access locked as part of a User Access Review

The User Access Review (UAR) occurs every 4 months where the school principal (as the Authoriser), reviews and determines whether their Child Link Users should have their Child Link access maintained or removed. If the UAR closes and no action has been taken by the principal, the User will see the following message when they attempt to log into Child Link: 'The Child Link User Access Review has not been completed by your authoriser. Your account has been locked, please contact your authoriser to request access.' The User must contact their principal in the first instance to have their account unlocked.

Removed by the principal

Principals are responsible for removing User access to Child Link in instances where the User no longer requires access, for example, when the User moves roles, leaves the school, or goes on extended leave.

Restricted by the department

The department may remove a Child Link User’s access to Child Link, to a child entry, or part of an entry, if continued access would pose an unacceptable risk of harm to a person or in all the circumstances would be otherwise inappropriate.

For more information on users’ access including where access is locked, restricted or removed, please refer to the Child Link Guide for School Principals as Authorisers (available in the Resources tab).