UPDATED Searching, screening and confiscation at school (DfE, January 2018)
The government’s ‘Searching, screening and confiscation at school’ guidance, has been updated. The latest document includes a new section, ‘Statutory guidance for dealing with electronic devices’.
A summary of the new section is below:
Staff may lawfully search electronic devices, without consent or parental permission, if there is a suspicion that the pupil has a device prohibited by school rules, or the staff member has good reason to suspect the device may be used to:
- cause harm,
- disrupt teaching,
- break school rules,
- commit an offence,
- cause personal injury, or
- damage property.
Any data, files or images that are believed to be illegal must be passed to the police as soon as practicable, including pornographic images of children, without deleting them.
Any data, files or images that are not believed to be unlawful, may be deleted or kept as evidence of a breach of the school’s behaviour policy.
The school’s policies should reflect this new guidance.
Download the guidance here: Searching, screening and confiscation at school (DfE, January 2018)
