How we engage with industry, government and more to maintain the ST4S framework.
ST4S is coordinated by Education Services Australia Limited (ESA), a Ministerial not for profit in Australia.
The ST4S assessment framework is established by the ST4S Working Group which comprises government agencies and independent/catholic school sector representatives across Australia and New Zealand.
We also receive feedback from other government agencies, app developers / suppliers and more.
ST4S incorporates standards and requirements from a range of sources and industry best practices. ESA and ST4S Working Group members also researches and develops criteria to improve cybersecurity, privacy and online safety within educational services used in schools.
App developers / suppliers, other government agencies and more can make submissions for consideration to the framework.
Criteria is drafted and proposed either by ESA or a ST4S Working Group member and then circulated for endorsement into the framework.
Examples of sources and references:
You can provide feedback to the ST4S framework and criteria by completing our primary Framework and Feedback form at any time.
We accept feedback from a number of groups including government agencies (both locally or internationally), app developers, advocacy groups and independent researchers or ethical hackers. Some surveys may only be open to certain groups depending on its context.
We also publish additional surveys on various topics to help inform the framework and gather information to identify new and emerging areas, approaches, technologies and more.
Feedback from surveys are first considered by ESA and may then be proposed to the ST4S Working Group for review. We do not accept anonymous submissions. ESA may also request to meet with you to discuss feedback.
Provide feedback on the latest AI criteria that was recently released in the ST4S framework.
Provide feedback on any ST4S criteria and the framework. Simply write your response or upload your submission as a file for consideration.
App Developers:
Vendors/Suppliers engaged in the ST4S assessment process, app developers and service providers.
Government (Local or International):
You represent a government body, agency, commission, ombudsman etc. Examples include staff at an Australian State or Territory Department of Education, Privacy Commissioner, international government (e.g. EU, UK, USA, Canada, etc).
Advocacy Groups:
Not for profit or charities who advocate for privacy rights, human rights, ethical software development etc.
Independent Ethical Hackers:
Certified ethical hackers (either under a company or as a sole trader), cybersecurity firms or consulting firms specialising in cybersecurity.
The general ‘ST4S Framework and Criteria Feedback’ simply asks for your contact information and provides a free text field or file upload to provide feedback. If you have feedback written already, it may take less than 5 minutes to complete.
Other surveys we publish on specific topics such as AI may take up to 30 minutes as we have predefined questions in addition to free text submissions.
All surveys save your progress and can be resumed at a later time. You need to ensure you navigate either forward or backwards to ensure your progress is saved.
Schools in Australia and New Zealand may access the ST4S reports we produce on various apps and services.
We do not currently open feedback on the ST4S framework and criteria to schools at this time. If you would like to provide feedback on the framework criteria on topics such as privacy/security etc. then we recommend contacting the Department of Education in your State/Territory (or the Ministry in New Zealand) who have representation on the ST4S Working Group.
If you wish to however provide feedback on ST4S reports and you are a registered user to the ST4S catalogue we will be launching a survey shortly to receive feedback on this service.
Not currently, unless you are a researcher (e.g. university researcher) or an ethical hacker with suitable training /certifications (e.g. CEH, CREST etc). The surveys above will describe what groups they are open to.
We receive a range of feedback from suggested improvements on wording to new criteria or general areas we should look into.
Examples of feedback you could provide include:
When providing feedback, if it is in regards to an existing criteria, please include the relevant control codes (e.g. S1, HR2, AI_T1 etc) to help us more easily identify and organise feedback on our side.
