Information about early childhood education information resources (from Varda)

Information reserve for early childhood education Information of children and guardians in early childhood education is stored in Varda

20.9.2024

The Early Childhood Education Database (Varda) is a national database that contains information about early childhood education operators, early childhood education locations, children in early childhood education, children's guardians and early childhood education personnel. The early childhood education information reserve is regulated in the Early Childhood Education Act (540/2018). The information stored in the database is used in the performance of statutory authority tasks, in making the administration more efficient, in the development of early childhood education and decision-making, and in the assessment, statistics, monitoring and research of early childhood education. Opetushallitus is responsible for the maintenance of the information reserve for early childhood education.

According to the Early Childhood Education Act, the municipality and municipal corporation are obliged to store the children's data in Varda from 1.1.2019 January 1.9.2019, as well as the data of the child's parents or other guardians (hereafter guardians) from 2024 September XNUMX. In addition, the municipality has an obligation to record data on the number of administrative decisions regarding support in early childhood education starting in XNUMX.

Personal data to be processed

A municipality, municipal corporation or private service provider acting as an early childhood education organizer records information about a person in early childhood education about the child the following information to Varda:

  • name, social security number, student number, native language, municipality and contact information
  • establishment where the child is in early childhood education
  • date of submission of the application
  • the start and end date of the decision or agreement
  • the hourly scope of the right to early childhood education and the information related to its use
  • information about organizing early childhood education as day care
  • form of organizing early childhood education

Some of the information has been collected from the child's guardians when applying for an early childhood education place, some of the information is stored directly in Varda by the early childhood education organizer.

In Varda, children in early childhood education are registered in the demographic information system of guardians the following information:

  • name, social security number, student number, native language, municipality and contact information
  • the amount of the early childhood education customer fee and the value of the service voucher
  • family size according to the law on customer fees for early childhood education
  • the start and end date of the payment decision

The information of parents in the child's family who are not the child's guardians is not stored in Varda.

The learner number is a permanent identifier given by the Board of Education, which is used to identify a person in the services of the Board of Education. Through the child's and guardian's learner number, up-to-date information about citizenship, gender, mother tongue, home municipality and contact information is updated from the Digital and Population Information Agency.

Information on child support is not stored in the child's data, but municipalities and municipal associations store numerical data by age group on the number of administrative decisions based on which the child receives enhanced or special support in early childhood education or general support support services.

The city of Äänekoski will transfer information about a child in early childhood education from the operational information system of early childhood education to Varda with the help of system integration from March 29.3.2019, 4.12.2019, and information about guardians from December XNUMX, XNUMX.

Data Controllers

The National Board of Education and municipalities, joint municipalities and private service providers act as register keepers in Varda. Jyrki Tuohela, data protection(at)oph.fi, is the data protection officer of the Board of Education. Ilkka Tarvainen, firstname.surname(at)aanekoski.fi, is the data protection officer of the city of Äänekoski. The municipality, joint municipality or private service provider acting as the register keeper is responsible for storing the data in Varda and that the data is correct and up-to-date.

Disclosure of information

In principle, the provisions of the Act on the Publicity of the Authority's Activities (621/1999) regarding the release of information or the production of data materials on request do not apply to the database. Information stored in Varda can be disclosed for the statutory activities of the authorities. The children's data will be handed over to the National Pension Service from 2020 and to the Statistics Finland from 2022. In addition, personal data can be disclosed for scientific research. You can find an up-to-date list of the authorities to whom information from Varda is handed over for the management of official duties https://wiki.eduuni.fi/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=190613234.

Service providers participating in the maintenance and development of Varda (personal data processors) can view the personal data contained in Varda to the extent determined by the Board of Education.

Personal data retention period

Information about the child and his/her guardians will be kept in the data reserve until five years have passed since the end of the calendar year in which the child's right to early childhood education ended. The learner number and the identifying information on the basis of which the learner number was issued are stored permanently.

Rights of the registrant

The child's guardian has the right to receive information about the processing of the child in early childhood education and his/her own personal data and to have access to the personal data stored in Varda (Data Protection Regulation, Article 15), the right to correct the data entered in Varda (Article 16) and to limit the processing of personal data (Article 18). In addition, the guardian of a child registered in Varda has the right to file a complaint with the data protection commissioner. More detailed instructions for exercising your rights can be found in the privacy policy at https://opintopolku.fi/konfo/fi/sivu/varda-palvelun-tietosuojaseloste .

As a guardian, you can view your data stored in Varda or your child's data in Varda's citizen view, which you can find in the Opatushallitus Oma Opintopolku service at  https://opintopolku.fi/oma-opintopolku/. Get to know to the service's instructions for use. If electronic transaction is not possible, information stored in Varda can be requested using a form with a link to Varda's privacy statement.

Additional information:

Early childhood education and preschool education