Data Collections Address Collection

The main changes in the 2023 Address Collection compared to previous years are as follows:

1. All data requirements for the Address Collection are detailed in the 2023 Data Technical Specification document. The document describes the expected residential circumstances of students and their parents/guardians and how to report each circumstance. We recommend you provide it to your school software vendor to ensure they have a copy.
2. The Address Collection Tool to create an XML format file for upload to SchoolsHUB has received some minor updates and will be published prior to the collection opening. Please ensure you are using the latest version of the collection tool. The tool is available within the Downloads section of this page.

Most non-government schools are required to complete the collection. Schools required to complete the collection will see ‘Address Collection 2023’ listed on the Data Collections dashboard in SchoolsHUB.

Note: If your school or school location is new in 2023, contact us to find out if you need to complete the collection.

It is the responsibility of the school’s Approved Authority to provide the required data to the collection under the Australian Education Regulation 2013.

Your Approved Authority can advise you of your school’s responsibilities in the submission of data to the collection.

Government schools and some non-government schools are exempt from completing the Address Collection under the Australian Education Regulation 2013.

These schools are:

1. Special Schools
2. Special Assistance Schools
3. Majority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (MATSIS) schools (as determined by the department)
4. Sole Provider Schools (as determined by the department)
5. Government Schools.

No. Some students must not be included in the submission to the collection. These are:

1. Students in early childhood education programs (referred to as Year 1 minus 2).
2. Full-fee paying overseas students (international students who do not attract Australian Government recurrent funding).
3. Distance Education students.

The collection does include any Australian school students who are overseas as part of an exchange program.

The Address Collection collects the following data from eligible schools, for each location at the school:

1. Address of each eligible school aged student   
2. Demographic data related to the student:
   1. Education Level (primary or secondary)
   2. Whether the student is a boarding or day student
3. Name and residential address of the person(s) responsible for each student. In general, the person(s) responsible will be the student’s parent/guardian.

Collectively, this data is referred to as the Statement of Student Addresses.

Student names are not collected as part of the Address Collection. Schools generate a unique student record number (SRN) to use as a reference for each record. The SRN is an unidentifiable number generated by the school and is used for this data collection only. 

The 2023 Address Collection will be open from Wednesday 15 February to Wednesday 15 March 2023.

Address Collection does not have a reporting period. Instead, data should be as at the start of the collection period, 15 February 2023 for students currently enrolled at the school’s locations.

Address Collection data is collected in accordance with sections 52(3)(c) and 58B of the Australian Education Regulation 2013.

These sections of the Regulation require the collection of student and parent/guardian address information and some student characteristic information. The collected data is used and combined with other data to calculate a non-government school community’s capacity to contribute to the costs of schooling.

The Address Collection has two options for providing data:

• Data upload - Upload an XML format file on the ‘Data Upload’ tab to submit bulk data to the collection where you report more than 10 students for a school location of students with usual residential address circumstances.
• Manual data entry – Enter address data for a location one student record at a time. Manual data entry is recommended for school(s)/location(s) with less than 10 students, unusual residential address circumstance records and if users need to report an address using pin an address.

The data upload function allows users to submit bulk data to the collection and is recommended for school(s)/location(s) reporting more than 10 students for a school location. The upload function requires your data to be in XML format. There are two ways to generate an XML file for upload:

1. From your school software. Check with your school software provider to find out whether your school software product can do this for the Address Collection.
2. Using the Address Collection Tool to generate an XML format file for upload. The tool is available within the Downloads section of this page.

Note: The XML file cannot contain any unusual circumstances records; these must be manually entered into SchoolsHUB.

SchoolsHUB enables you to manage your data submission by manually entering the data or using the Data Upload functionality. The Data Upload functionality has two actions you can use:

1. Append – Use this option if you are uploading data for the first time or to add new data to a location(s) with existing data in SchoolsHUB.
2. Replace – Use this option to replace all data currently in SchoolsHUB for the location(s) listed in your upload file. Any changes or validations already made to data for those location(s) in SchoolsHUB will be lost.

A Location Australian Government Education ID number (Location AGEID) is a unique identifier for each location of a school approved by the department. It is different to the school’s AGEID.

Address Collection data is submitted against the Location AGEID.

You can find your Location AGEID in your signed in profile page or by using the ‘link an organisation’ search function. 

We recommend reading the Using SchoolsHUB help page for more information.