Plan to save lost kids with ‘unique’ student IDs

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has called for a unique student ID for every Australian child to stop kids at risk “falling through the cracks”.

A UNIQUE student ID for every Australian child must be created as a priority to stop kids at risk “falling through the cracks”, says NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell.

Ms Mitchell said the nation had not moved fast enough to establish a national student ID, and she’s pushing for NSW to “lead the way” to identify children aged five to 17 across the state missing out on education.

It comes after The Sunday Telegraph revealed around 7000 “lost kids” across NSW - and more than 50,000 across Australia - are not simply skipping school, they are not enrolled in formal education at all.

The alarming figures have prompted experts to call for a national commitment to address the “hidden crisis.”

“One child missing out on their education is one too many,” Ms Mitchell said.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell. Picture: NewsWire/Monique Harmer

“The reasons for this are complex and a whole-of-government, national approach is needed to address this issue.

“However across Australia we have not moved fast enough in developing and implementing a Unique Student Identifier (USI) which could track students’ progress over time on a range of outcomes, including attendance, and help better target support, earlier.

Sunday Telegraph’s front page.

“I’ve asked officials at the (Education) Department to lead the way and progress work on this in NSW so no child is at risk of falling through the cracks.”

The need to establish a national USI was flagged in 2019, as one of eight policy initiatives included in the National School Reform Agreement.

It would see a unique number provided to every Australian school student, allowing information to be shared between schools, sectors and jurisdictions without using a student’s name.

In December 2019, education ministers agreed on a model to develop and operate the project, with a view to all school students having a USI by 2023.

But progress has been slow, and it’s set to again be discussed at the education ministers’ meeting in December.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said government and non-government schools were working on better processes for transferring information about students who moved between education systems, in response to a recommendation of the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

University of Melbourne’s Professor Jim Watterston has long called for a national commitment to identify, and help, kids who’ve dropped out of school.

“Young people who leave school early ... are more likely to be challenged throughout their life with a higher prevalence of incarceration, welfare dependency, long term unemployment and poor health outcomes,” he said.

NSW Education initiatives to prevent students detaching from school, include 113 home school liaison officers.