Guidance
Supporting transition to department-provided technologies
The Securing Connected Learners (SCL) Program includes several projects to support schools in the transition to department-provided technologies including the decommissioning of school-managed technologies and identities. The transition will be incremental and designed to support schools and minimise disruption.
The approach and sequence of transition will be based on a balanced assessment of risk, need and benefit. The SCL Program works with each school to understand their ICT landscape and develop an individual transition plan.
Schools can register their interest by visiting the SCL Program information (staff login required) for early transition to department technologies with the SCL Program. Additionally, if existing commercial agreements for equipment, services and software are due for renewal and sufficient notice is provided, the SCL Program may be able to facilitate an early transition providing a cost-avoidance opportunity for schools.
The SCL Program also seeks school input to further evolve and expand the suite of department-provided technologies.
ICT support for schools
Technical Support to Schools Program
The Technical Support to Schools Program (TSSP) provides Specialist Technicians (ST) to all schools. STs deliver onsite scheduled support for both school and department ICT initiatives. Each school is also assigned a Regional Service Delivery Manager (SDM). SDMs are a point of contact for schools regarding the TSSP and ICT in general. SDM contact information is available via the TSSP Workforce Management System (staff login required) and the TSSP Specialist Technician intranet (staff login required).
A weekly allocation of technical support hours is calculated annually for each school using the February enrolment census data. STs follow a visitation schedule which is available in the WMS once approved by the Regional SDM.
Schools must select STs from the TSSP supplier panel. This selection process is managed by the TSSP WMS and coordinated by the Regional SDM.
STs are expected to sign in and out for each school visit using any system nominated by the school. It is recommended that the ST has a single point of contact on staff who coordinates their day-to-day activities.
STs log their support times on a weekly basis using a central timesheet module in the online TSSP (staff login required). Schools must provide electronic approval of ST timesheet entries as soon as requested. If a timesheet entry is marked as ‘not approved’, the SDM will be automatically notified and will contact the school to resolve any issue. By default, principals have access to approve timesheet entries and may delegate access to any appropriate staff member.
If schools require guidance on any ICT programs and services provided by the department or third-party applications, devices or ICT services, then they can consult with their TSSP ST, Regional SDM or contact the department’s Services (staff login required).
ICT purchasing panels
Schools must comply with the Procurement – Schools policy when purchasing ICT equipment and services.
The department has contractual agreements with suppliers across a selection of ICT products, services and applications on behalf of schools to:
- obtain all necessary purchasing approvals
- ensure that the suppliers are contracted to supply at agreed pricing with fit-for-purpose warranty provisions
- provide competitive pricing and choice of supplier where possible
- deliver an effective mix of technology options, including entry-level, standard and enhanced product categories, including choice of supplier product, customised warranty and support and upgrade options.
Further information is available on the Information and communications technology panels (staff login required) of the department managed procurement categories page – providing ‘Rules of Use’ and more information on how to use each purchasing panel.
Arc platform
Arc is the Department of Education's digital platform that provides Victorian teachers with access to curriculum-aligned resources, professional learning opportunities, and safe and reliable software and technologies. The Arc platform includes:
- Arc Learning – a digital content repository that provides teachers with easier access to high-quality learning and teaching resources. The content featured on Arc Learning has been comprehensively mapped to the Victorian curriculum frameworks and the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model so teachers can feel confident when selecting resources for their students
- Arc Events – offering a variety of in-person and virtual student and professional learning opportunities. These experiences are led by experts from Victorian providers, including museums, zoos, sports organisations, and art facilitators
- Arc Software – providing safe and reliable access to major suppliers’ software, such as Webex, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace for Education and Minecraft. School leaders and teachers can browse the Safer Technologies for Schools (ST4S) reports to review the safety and security of a wide range of education software and technologies. For more information refer to the Software and Administration Systems policy.
Backup and recovery of ICT infrastructure
To minimise IT security and business continuity risks associated with data loss, there is a requirement to implement backup and recovery procedures for ICT infrastructure in schools.
Backup procedures involve copying data to another medium so that in the event the data is lost, it can be recovered in a recent, if not completely current, version. Backup is not intended for archiving data for future reference or maintaining a versioned history of data. Data backups are not intended to serve as archival copies of data or to meet the departmental record keeping or retention requirements.
Data archiving requirements are not included in this policy, as the technical requirements and user expectations of data archive are different to data backup. Data archiving involves storing older information that is not needed for everyday operations (that is, moving these older files to a separate, long-term storage device). For more information about retention requirements, refer to Records Management.
This policy also excludes backup and recovery of data residing on school systems hosted by external service providers or centrally by the department.
Classification of ICT infrastructure
The ICT infrastructure classification guide on the Resources tab lists the different types of ICT infrastructure in schools and who is responsible for backup and recovery. Where a particular type of ICT infrastructure in a school does not appear in this document, schools are responsible for backup and recovery procedures.
Department backup and recovery
Where the department is responsible for backup and recovery procedures, the standard operational backup frequency will be daily, with backups to be retained for a period of 31 days.
The department’s School Administration Server backup service takes a copy of the data within the school user’s folder. The user’s folder is located on the D: Drive of the administration server. A school user can see this folder on their workstations as the U:\Users Folder.
Recovery of this data outside of a declared disaster is to be requested by a school through logging a service request via the Services (staff login required).
The P: Drive directory supports the generation of reports and the usage of other files within the CASES21 environment. P: Drive is a temporary storage location with a limited capacity and not part of the School Administration Server backup process. Business managers ensure that data that requires long-term retention is copied from P: Drive to the U: Drive to ensure the data is backed up and the storage capacity limit is not reached. For more information refer to the CASES21 Administration User Guide (staff log-in required).
When storing files on the school administration server, schools must store files in accordance with the Acceptable Use Policy for ICT Resources.
School backup and recovery
Where the school is responsible for backup and recovery procedures schools must determine if each item of school ICT infrastructure requires back up procedures. TSSP school technicians assist schools to determine this and put in place backup procedures.
Where backup procedures are required for an item of school ICT infrastructure, schools must:
- determine the method for backup
- determine the backup frequency and retention period to meet operational needs for business continuity, both for recovery from declared disasters and from data loss through other causes
- successfully test recovery of data from each different type of backup at a minimum of once per year
- implement automated processes to execute backups
- implement procedures to monitor and report on the success or failure of backups.
Where backups of school ICT infrastructure are transmitted or stored offsite, they must be encrypted. Schools must implement suitable processes to manage certificates used for encrypting backups. Certificates must be available for recovery purposes in the event of declared disasters, including total loss of a school site.
Where technically possible, backup processes should be configured to minimise their use of computing and network resources during normal school hours.
Schools can backup data stored on staff and student devices by configuring cloud-based data storage services such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.
Reviewed 24 January 2025