Updating & Optimising Contracts, Denying Enrolment & Dealing With Challenging Scenarios
| Date | 28 May 2026 |
| Time | 12.00pm-3.45pm AEST (Syd/Mel/Bris Time) |
| Venue | Live Online with recording (recording access expires 28 June 2026) |
| Pricing | $440 Prices includes gst. |
| Sector | Non-State Schools |
| CPD | Addresses 7.2 of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. |
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Program
12.00 LawSense Welcome
12.05 Chairperson’s Remarks
Matthew O’Brien, Principal and CEO, Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School
12.10 Refusing Enrolment: Navigating Disability, Unjustifiable Hardship, Gender and Other Issues
- Exploring the grounds upon which a school may wish to query or decline enrolment:
- student behaviour record or incidents or school refusal in previous schools
- student disability which is unable to be reasonably accommodated
- other issues, including sex or gender, the religious/ideological basis of or operational limitations of the school
- Examining best practice in assessing enrolment, including using enrolment panels
Sex/Gender
- Navigating rights and obligations where the student is expressing a different gender to their sex on the birth certificate
Student Behaviour
- Student behaviour record – ensuring you obtain all key information from parents and the student before forming a view
- Examining key considerations in declining enrolment based on information you have about student behaviour
Student Disability
- Student disability:
- examining when and on what basis a school can decline enrolment
- ensuring you have sought all the relevant information in order to make a defensible decision
- declining enrolment where information has not been provided or where misleading information has been given
Unjustifiable Hardship
- Examining when you can decline enrolment for unjustifiable hardship. What is ’unjustifiable’?
- Balancing the impacts:
- on other students – to what extent does this factor into ‘unjustifiable hardship’ or ‘reasonable’ adjustments?
- impacts on staff – understanding what to consider
- factoring in limitations on resources as a result of already supporting a number of students with a disability
Delayed or Conditional Enrolment, Reviewing Enrolment
- Exploring options to:
- delay enrolment or make enrolment conditional
- provide for a review ongoing enrolment, for example to allow for withdrawal of enrolment if there is a change in the level of disability
Incomplete Information or Failure to Provide Information
- Exploring when you can decline enrolment for a failure to provide adequate or complete information at the time of application
Defensible Documentation of Decisions
- Documenting decisions to refuse enrolment to optimise legal defensibility
Erin McCarthy, Partner, Piper Alderman
1.20 Break
1.30 Parent Separation and Enrolment: Understanding Rights and Obligations, Managing Fees and Optimising Enrolment Contracts
- Outlining key rights, obligations and risks where:
- parents are separated prior to enrolment
- parents separate after enrolment
- Drafting and optimising enrolment contracts and policies, including:
- drafting clauses to optimise the school’s position regarding fee recovery
- implementing clauses regarding decision making and information sharing
- should you change arrangements by amending the original contract or with a separate agreement?
- exploring best practice policies to support enrolment and fee recovery with separated parents
- Dealing with challenging scenarios, including:
- where one parent wishes to enrol the student at the school but the other does not
- the parents separate after enrolment and one parent refuses to pay fees
- one parent will pay the fees and wants to be the only parent on the enrolment contract
David Scanlan, Employment Law Practice Lead – WA, Mapien Law
2.30 Break
2.40 Updating Enrolment Frameworks and Contracts: What Should You Ensure Is Included In 2026?
Outlining Key Applicable Laws
- Outlining key laws applying to enrolment contracts, including the Australian Consumer Law
- Learning from notable cases
Managing Pre-Enrolment, Including Applications Pools and Waitlists
- Managing pre-enrolment including:
- the application form, what should be included and ensuring your collecting of data limits privacy breach risks and optimises privacy compliance
- using application pools
- managing waitlists
- rights and obligations in obtaining information from a previous school
Key Matters to Include in 2026
- Identifying key contract clauses and documents to have in the current environment
- Addressing particular challenges, including:
- student behaviour – social media, breach of school values, uniforms
- Consumer Law issues and fee recovery
- parent behaviour including terminating enrolment
- privacy and consent issues
- inclusivity including sex/gender
- information regarding student disability
Clauses Dealing with Terminating Enrolment
- Optimising terms allowing the school to terminate enrolment due to:
- student or parent behaviour, including due to mutual relationship breakdown
- fee payment issues
Modifying Enrolments Terms
- Changing enrolment terms during the course of the student’s enrolment at the school
Learning from Case Studies
- Learnings from how schools have relied on enrolment documentation in particular circumstances and examining where schools have come unstuck. Areas include:
- withdrawal of enrolment due to change in student disability – unjustifiable hardship or issues with reasonable adjustments
- suspensions or expulsions for student behaviour, including breach of school values, or continued “lower level” issues such as uniform policy breaches
- student counselling
- withdrawing enrolment because of the conduct of parents
- withdrawal of enrolment because of a failure of parents to provide key information
- changing of fee structures or teaching arrangements
- seeking fees relating to parents withdrawing the student from school
- Optimising communications with parents and advocates to ensure you can rely on enrolment terms and defend your legal position
Ben Tallboys, Principal, Russell Kennedy; Legal Counsel, Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA)
3.40 Chairperson’s Conclusion
3.45 Event Close
Presenters / panelists include:
Erin McCarthy has over fifteen years’ experience in providing advice to employers and employer associations on all aspects of occupational health and safety, employment and industrial relations law as well as delivering essential information seminars and training workshops on key employment issues.
David Scanlan is a Senior Employment Lawyer at Mapien Law heading up their WA office, having commenced in September 2025. Prior, David was the Director of People & Culture at St Hilda’s from 2020. In this role he drove the people development, cultural development, talent acquisition and compliance functions of the School. Prior to joining St Hilda’s, David worked in private practice as lawyer. He spent much of his career at international law firm Ashurst.
Ben Tallboys provides sector-specific, practical legal solutions to schools across Australia. Ben is a passionate and effective advocate for principals dealing with complex matters relating to parents, staff and students, as well as their own employment.