EVERY South Australian child will be tracked by the Education Department from birth until the age of eight using a data-sharing system to identify children in need and improve their development.

Individual children will be tracked by collating information from peri-natal statistics, emergency department records, school census data and dental and child health records.

The data will be used to compare how characteristics such as low birth weight, having a disability, growing up in a single-parent household or a low-income household, or using particular drugs, affects a child's education and development.

Children will not be named but instead be known by a "unique identifier" - or a string of letters and numbers.

While the move is likely to raise privacy concerns, Education Minister Jay Weatherill said the collection of data would remain anonymous and that key safeguards had been put in place.

Mr Weatherill will present the new system, which is currently being rolled out in SA, at an education ministers' conference in Perth today. He will push for the system to be picked up nationally.

"The Education Department will be tracking individual children over time so that we can compare the relative effects of a whole range of factors in their lives," Mr Weatherill said.

"Research shows that the majority of factors that influence children's development and learning occur before or outside of school (such as) family circumstances, health issues, birth weight and a wide range of other considerations."

Only public policy makers and researchers will have access to the data, in order to develop more targeted policies and programs to support children in need. The tracking will stop after age eight, however the Education Department has not ruled out increasing the age level for future research projects.

Mr Weatherill said the new data system would give researchers immediate access to information rather than the time-consuming and costly exercise of gathering it themselves.

Currently, the Australian Early Development Index and national literacy and numeracy tests (NAPLAN), provide data on children's key developmental areas. The data can only be broken down by location - identifying suburbs and schools in highest need, rather than specific types of children.

"But South Australia's new system of data linkage will track individual children over time to get a more complete picture of all children and which ones need particular support for their future education," Mr Weatherill said.

"From there we will be able to track the efficacy of programs, like our nurse home visits to mums and our school retention programs, and better target them on the basis of the development that we monitor in individual children. We will be able to see which intervention has the best results."

One of the first major applications of the new system will be a State Government research project on the effect of Ritalin use on educational results.

By tracking individual children using Ritalin, researchers will gain a clearer picture of the effect Ritalin has on educational results.

It follows concerns from child experts that the use of heavy stimulants, such as Ritalin and failed adult anti-depressant Strattera, could be masking the true psychological problems of children.

Melissa Stephenson of Para Hills West gave birth to her third child, Emily, , at the Lyell McEwin Hospital on Tuesday.

She said she would not mind her daughter's information being tracked from birth, as long as it remained anonymous.

"I'm a social worker and I have worked in child protection, so I think it's an excellent initiative," she said.

"For there to be improvements in services you need to weigh up the privacy (issue).

"As long is there is anonymity, it's a great idea."

Originally published as Children's records to be tracked