Report comments and AI: keep student names out

Student names do not need to reach an AI tool, even in report season. If you use AI at all for reports, use it only on material with no student in it, such as a comment bank written with placeholders like [Name]. Put names and personal details back in your school’s reporting system, and write and check each final comment yourself. In Victorian government schools, the department’s policy sets firm limits here, which we explain below.

Why names are the thing to keep out

Some schools already work this way without AI. As the founder, a teacher, describes it: “Some schools have a comment bank which are templates specific per subject and year. The only thing you need to update is the students names.”

That is a helpful starting point, because it shows where the private part of a report sits. A comment about “clear analytical writing” belongs to no one. Put a student’s name beside it and it becomes information about that student’s learning. The founder again: “Schools do have privacy rules. Mainly removing student PII.” PII means personally identifiable information: anything that points to one real student.

Once you paste text into an AI tool, it goes wherever that tool stores it, under that tool’s terms. You may not be able to take it back. Our articles on where student data goes and whether AI tools learn from what you type explain what to find out.

What the Victorian policy says

In Victorian government schools, the department’s generative AI policy (read 25 September 2026) says that when using any generative AI tool, schools must direct staff and students “to not load any personal information about students or staff onto the tool (for example, student names, reports, personal histories and contact details).”

The same policy says staff must be directed not to use generative AI tools to directly “write student reports for parents or carers.”

So in a Victorian government school, AI does not write a student’s report, and a named report does not go into an AI tool, even to tidy the wording. Whether your school allows AI to help draft a general comment bank with no student information in it is a question to settle with your leadership team before report season. [CHECK CURRENT GUIDANCE: VIC] Other schools: check your sector’s or state’s rules.

How a comment bank with placeholders works

A placeholder is a marker you swap for the real detail later. Here is a Year 10 English comment written that way:

“[Name] has developed a clear analytical voice in [his/her/their] essays on [text]. To improve further, [Name] should choose shorter quotations and explain how each one supports the argument.”

Nothing in that sentence identifies a student. You choose it for the students it fits, then add the name, pronoun and text in your school’s reporting system. You also add the specific evidence that makes it true for this student: the essay, the moment in class, the improvement you saw.

Outside Victorian government schools, some report tools use placeholders in place of names, or keep student details on the teacher’s own device and never send them to the AI. If your sector allows such a tool, ask which of these it does and where the text goes. A student number is not a placeholder, because it still identifies the student. In Victorian government schools, the rule above applies whatever a tool does with names: AI does not write the report.

Watch for details that identify a student without a name

Removing the name is the first step. A comment can still point to one student without naming them. “Since returning from her surgery in Term 2” or “as the only student in the state cricket squad” identifies someone to anyone who knows the class.

Keep health information, family circumstances, behaviour incidents and wellbeing notes out of any AI step. Do not paste a student’s work sample with their name at the top. And take care with a “polish my comment” request: once the comment has the student’s details in it, it is personal information again.

Where your judgement still does the work

A comment bank saves typing, but the report is still yours. Parents read it as your professional view of their child. Choosing the right comment, adding one real example and adjusting the tone for a student who has had a hard year are judgements only you can make.

Read each finished comment once as the parent will. Ask yourself whether it sounds like you, whether it is accurate, and whether it tells the family one clear next step.

What to do before reports are due

Ask your report coordinator whether your school has a comment bank and a rule about AI and reports. Many of your questions may already be answered.

If you work on a comment bank, write or edit it with placeholders, and keep names and personal details out of every AI step.

Add names and specific evidence in your school’s reporting system, not in the AI tool.

Please keep student names out of AI tools. This protects students, and it protects you too.

Before you use a tool for report work, find out what its vendor says about where your text goes. As we publish tool checks, our tool directory shows this for each tool.