IP - 07121-1/2021/540

IP - 07121-1/2021/540
Authority:	IP (Slovenia)
Jurisdiction:	Slovenia
Relevant Law:	Article 5(1)(c) GDPR Art. 20 Kindergartens Act Art. 51.a Communicable Diseases Act
Type:	Advisory Opinion
Outcome:	n/a
Started:
Decided:	19.03.2021
Published:	19.03.2021
Fine:	None
Parties:	n/a
National Case Number/Name:	07121-1/2021/540
European Case Law Identifier:	n/a
Appeal:	n/a
Original Language(s):	Slovenian
Original Source:	IP (in SL)
Initial Contributor:	GDPR plus

The Slovenian DPA stated that obtaining information on the child's health and developmental characteristics, knowledge of which is necessary for the child's safety and work with the child, and on whether the child has been vaccinated, is not appropriate at the stage of submitting an application for enrollment in kindergarten.

English Summary

Facts

Question: is it permissible for a kindergarten to ask for information about a child's health and immunisation status as early as the child's application for admission (i.e., before admission). You have attached a sample of such an application from your municipality.

Holding

Obtaining information on the child's health and developmental characteristics, knowledge of which is necessary for the child's safety and work with the child, and on whether the child has been vaccinated, is not appropriate at the stage of submitting an application for enrollment in kindergarten.

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English Machine Translation of the Decision

The decision below is a machine translation of the Slovenian original. Please refer to the Slovenian original for more details.

On 2 March 2021, we received your request from the Information Commissioner (IP) for an opinion on whether it is permissible for a kindergarten to request information on the child's health status and vaccination status in the application for enrollment of a child (ie before admission and inclusion). You have attached a sample of such an application from your municipality.

On the basis of the information you have provided to us, in accordance with Article 58 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data Directive 95/46 / EC (hereinafter: the General Regulation on Data Protection), point 7 of the first paragraph of Article 49 of the Personal Data Protection Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 94/07-UPB1, hereinafter ZVOP-1) and Article 2 of the Information Commissioner Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 113/05, hereinafter ZInfP) provides our non-binding opinion on your issue. We also explain that the IP, outside the inspection procedure, is not competent to assess the internal acts of the municipality or educational organizations.

Data retrieval:

- on the child's health and developmental characteristics, knowledge of which is essential for the child's safety and work with the child, and

- whether the child has been vaccinated,

it is not appropriate already in the phase of submitting an application for enrollment in kindergarten.

Obtaining information on the fact that it is a child with special needs together with an individual plan, opinion of the CSD or the minutes of the center is permissible already at the stage of submitting the application for enrollment .

Later, at the stage of inclusion in the kindergarten, it is permissible to collect all the above data, including evidence.

Explanation:

All considered personal data are relevant and may be collected by the kindergarten, because there are legal grounds for this:

* the basis for data on vaccination and non-vaccination is in Article 51.a of the Infectious Diseases Act (ZNB) and in the eighth paragraph of Article 20 of the Kindergartens Act (ZVrt);
* for data on a child with special needs, the basis is in the sixth paragraph of Article 20 of the ZVrt, if the parents also submit an individual plan of assistance to the family or the minutes of the center for early treatment or the opinion of the center for social work on endangerment due to social status. It is also based on the Orientation of Children with Special Needs Act (ZUOPP-1) and the Integrated Early Treatment of Preschool Children with Special Needs Act (ZOPOPP);
* for health data that are important for work with children and safety is the basis in the eighth paragraph of Article 20 and the third paragraph of Article 44 of the ZVrt and in Article 5 of the Rules on the collection and protection of personal data in the field of preschool education.

The difference is only in the time or phase in which certain data are collected. The principle of minimum data coverage under Article 5 (1) (c) of the General Data Protection Regulation requires that personal data be relevant, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes for which they are processed.

In the phase of collecting applications for enrollment of children and deciding on admission, there is no need to obtain data on vaccinations and health specialties, because these two data according to the above regulations should not affect (not a criterion) the ranking. Only in the phase of final inclusion (conclusion of a contract) in the kindergarten are data on the relevant health condition and vaccination important. If the municipality has prescribed an application form requesting information on the relevant health condition and vaccination, the parents of this part, according to the IP, are not obliged to fill it out, but must do so later if the child is actually admitted to kindergarten. 

It is different if it is a child with special needs, because this fact affects the inclusion in the list or gives a certain advantage in enrollment. In this part, the application for registration complies with the principle of minimum data size.

Kind regards,