DPDP Act 2023 for Schools, Colleges & Coaching Institutes
India’s data-protection law now applies to every educational institute. Here is what it means for you — and how SUMS ERP and Siccura Regula help you get ready.
Children's Data Protection
High Penalties for Non-Compliance
Parent Rights & Data Access
Mandatory Security Safeguards
Why the DPDP Act matters for education
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is India’s first comprehensive personal-data law. It applies to any organisation that collects, stores or processes the personal data of people in India — which includes every educational institute. Education is the highest-risk sector under the Act for one simple reason: most learners are minors, and the Act sets a child as anyone under 18 with special protections.
Personal data your institute handles every day
Student name, photograph, date of birth, address and ID; parent and guardian names and contact details; medical records; fee and payment information; attendance, marks and assessments; transport and hostel records; library and online-learning activity; scholarship and alumni records. Most of it belongs to a minor.
The Penalties are large
|
Breach
|
Maximum penalty
|
|---|---|
|
Mishandling children’s data obligations
|
Up to ₹200 crore
|
|
Failing to implement reasonable security safeguards
|
Up to ₹250 crore
|
|
Failing to notify a data breach
|
Up to ₹200 crore
|
|
Any other breach of the Act
|
Up to ₹50 crore
|
Top DPDP risks we see in institutes
- Student photos and videos shared freely on WhatsApp groups, websites and social media without specific consent.
- Open student-data spreadsheets with names, dates of birth, parent numbers and fees passed between staff and vendors.
- Marketing outreach using parent contacts collected for fee reminders — reused without fresh consent.
- Vendor sharing with transport, canteen, photo, exam and edtech partners with no agreement or erasure clause.
- Old records of students who left years ago, still sitting on drives and personal laptops.
- Behavioural trackers and ad cookies switched on by default in student-facing apps — directly prohibited for under-18s.
The 7-step DPDP roadmap for education
find every place personal data lives and classify it by sensitivity.
plain-language notice and verifiable parental consent, with fresh consent for each new purpose.
stop tracking, profiling and targeted ads for under-18s.
access control, file protection, secure sharing, staff training.
easy ways to view, correct, erase and raise grievances, answered on time.
a written plan to detect, contain and notify the Board and affected parents.
DPDP-aligned contracts, processing records, retention schedules, annual audit.
Children’s data — the critical focus
“Verifiable” means the consent is genuinely tied to that child’s parent — for example a signed admission form with parent ID, an OTP to the parent’s registered mobile, video-KYC during enrolment, or a digital signature via DigiLocker. A tick-box filled in by the student does not count.
Verifiable parental or guardian consent before any processing.
No tracking or behavioural monitoring of children.
No targeted advertising directed at children.
How SUMS ERP + Siccura Regula support each step
SUMS secures the structured data inside your institute’s core system — admissions, fees, academics, the parent portal. Siccura Regula secures the unstructured files on the endpoint — the Word, Excel, PDF and photo files that move through staff laptops and synced cloud folders. Used together, they cover both layers of education data.
Let's Hear from Our Happy Clients
Book A Demo
Our Clients
Over 1500 clients who are leading the way to a paperless future
Call Now
WhatsApp