LawSense Law for School Counsellors NSW 2026

Now in its 12th Year – In-Person & Live Online & Recorded

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Program

8.45      LawSense Welcome

8.50      Chairperson’s Introduction

9.00      Case Studies: Navigating Disclosure of Information and Student Consent in Challenging Scenarios

Outlining Key Obligations, Including for Psychologists, Non-Psychologist Counsellors, and Social Workers in Schools

• Outlining changes in legislation, expectations and enforcement of privacy and confidentiality for school counsellors
• Outlining professional obligations and difference between psychologists and non-psychologist counsellors
• Examining how current duties to your employer affect your privacy and confidentiality obligations towards the student

Ownership of Files

• Examining rights to files, including notes, diaries, and communications

Student Capacity to Consent to Disclosure – Mature Minors, Recent Cases

• Examining the key elements of informed consent
• How is age considered in assessing consent in different circumstances?
• How does age affect considerations of consent where the student is between 12 and 14?
• What level of information is required to make it “informed” when dealing with mature minors?
• Examining recent cases regarding assessing Gillick competency (10 year olds)
• Navigating student disability and consent

Documenting Consent and Optimising Policies and Forms

• Exploring best practice in obtaining and documenting consent for counselling, including policies, notes and forms

Providing Information to Parents/Guardians Without Student Consent

• Exploring circumstances where you would be able to provide information to a parent without or contrary to student consent

Sharing Information Outside the School

• Outlining laws allowing sharing of information with other schools, agencies or organisations, and how the laws work in practice
• Documenting sharing requests and what information has been shared

Dealing With Challenging Scenarios

• Navigating challenging scenarios, including:
  • school leadership seeks access to your notes or details of which students are seeking counselling
  • school policy now requires you to share information with the wellbeing team, however some members of the team are not mental health professionals
  • managing a request for school counselling support from students where there have been abuse and domestic violence disclosures. How can the school respond without parental consent or putting the student at further risk

Sonya Parsons, Partner, Mills Oakley Lawyers

10.00    Break

10.25    Exploring Best Practice Note-Taking: Good Versus Bad Notes

Principles to Apply

• Outlining key principles to apply in note-taking and record keeping by school counsellors, including:
  • level of detail or clarity
  • ensuring you cover key aspects
  • “loaded” words from which inferences could be drawn about the writer
  • recording conversations and dealing with hearsay
  • communications with external professionals
  • recording your hypotheses, investigations, conclusions and setting out the basis of opinions
  • making changes to notes after they were originally written
  • naming or referring to other individuals in case notes
• Using the student’s language or quoting others
• Taking notes, but also being “in the moment” with the student

Learnings from Examples and Case Studies – Good v Bad Notes

• Exploring best practice note-taking and good versus not so good notes in particular areas:
  • cyber bullying
  • sexualised behaviours/assault
  • anxiety, self-harm
  • case management of complex matters

Dr Tim Lowry, Clinical & Forensic Psychologist, Silverton Psychology Group; Statewide Program Coordinator: Forensic Liaison and Community Forensic Networks, Queensland Forensic Mental Health Service, QLD Health

11.25    Student Social Media Update: Navigating Social Media Age Limits, Deep Fakes, Conduct Outside the School “Gates” and Impacts Such as Self Harm

Social Media Age Limits

• Outlining the new laws regarding age limits on social media use, including examining exceptions
• Exploring the implications and impacts of the new laws:
  • what action should you take if you suspect students are using social media in breach of the age limit?
  • do the changes provide further rights or expectations for the school to search student devices or monitor social media use
  • exploring impacts on the duty of care generally and approaches taken by schools

Deep Fakes-Applicable Laws and Obligations

• Exploring how deep fakes have emerged in the school context, including “nudity” apps and other tools
• Examining the law relevant to deep fakes, including with AI generated explicit images
• Examining the obligations of the school where staff are the subject of deep fakes
• Understanding legal restrictions on the school copying, storing or sharing the offending explicit material, including deep fakes,

Schools Obligations with Activity Occurring Outside School

• Understanding the extent of a school’s obligations where the activity happens outside school including where material:
  • is sent by a student outside the school
  • is posted on social media relating to parties or events which are not school activities, but include students at the school

Student Self Harm – Managing Obligations and Exploring Best Practice Risk Assessments, Absence and Return Plans

• Outlining obligations where students self-harm or express suicidal ideation arising from social media interactions
• Understanding how assessments and plans can affect legal compliance or be used in legal claims against the school?
• Outlining key elements to consider:
  • exploring how extensive assessments and plans should be and who should be involved
  • developing risk assessments and plans, including considering all points in the day
  • absence and return plans – what should be considered and recorded
  • balancing impacts on other students and navigating parents

Leighton Hakwes, Principal, McCabes Lawyers

12.25    Chairperson’s Remarks

12.30    Lunch

1.15      Chairperson’s Remarks

1.20      Student Disability: Navigating Diagnosis, or Lack of Diagnosis and Developing Assessments and Reasonable Adjustments

Rights of the School to Determine Adjustments Versus Experts

• Understanding the rights and responsibilities of the school versus health experts to determine what the student requires to meet the diagnosis or disability

Risk Assessments

• Exploring best practice in developing risk assessments, including, when they are required, exploring how extensive assessments should be and who should be involved

Support Plans/Reasonable Adjustments Case Studies – Disability Affecting Behaviour

Examining the Extent of Reasonable Adjustments Required, Assessing and Balancing Risk and Examining Options to Decline Adjustments

• Exploring the range of disabilities encountered by schools impacting behaviour or causing significant impacts of students and staff – ADD/ADHD, ODD and other behaviour disorders, depression/self-harm
• Learning from case studies and examples:
  • how should schools interpret and apply obligations to make reasonable adjustments?
  • how should schools approach determining the limits of reasonable adjustments required in each circumstance?
  • balancing impacts on other students and staff
  • managing experts: responding to experts, briefing, and managing school experts
  • determining unjustifiable hardship
• Managing consultation and communications with parents, other stakeholders, and advocates
• Documenting steps and decision making regarding reasonable adjustments to ensure compliance and optimise your legal position

Reasonable Adjustments Case Studies – Learning Disability

• Learning from case studies and examples:
  • optimising assessment of learning needs
  • understanding the extent to which you can make changes to the curriculum
  • exploring the limits of required learning support resources
  • implementing changes to the physical learning environment

Dealing With Challenging Scenarios

• Managing differences in views between experts, parents and the student about adjustments required and what is reasonable, including managing separated parents
• An expert report suggests certain adjustments, but the school has no evidence of the student needing the adjustments
• Examining your duties where:
  • you consider there is undiagnosed mental illness
  • there is no diagnosis found but you still feel there is something
• Assessing the reasonableness of one-on-one support
• Considering partial student attendance
• Managing circumstances where parents do not wish adjustments to be made, despite the disability

Tim McDonald, Principal, McCabes Lawyers

2.20      Break

2.40      Conflict Between Parents, Family Court Orders, DVOs/IVOs/AVOs and Objecting to Subpoenas

Understanding Family Court Orders, Rights and Obligations Where There Are No Court Orders and Recent Changes Regarding Objecting to Subpoenas

Rights and Obligations Where There Are No Court Orders

• Understanding parent rights and responsibilities where there are no court orders or any written agreement/arrangement

Understanding and Interpreting Court Orders

• Outlining how Family Court Orders can dictate:
  • the obligations of parents, including consequences of non- compliance
  • school obligations
• Understanding and interpreting Family Court Orders and parenting agreements including:
  • Interim Orders
  • Final Orders
  • the difference between Family Court Orders and Parenting Plans
  • orders regarding parental responsibility and living with/spending time with one parent or the other
  • responsibility for day-to-day and longer-term decision regarding the child
• Learning from examples of different Court Orders and Parenting Plans

Objecting to Subpoenas/Information Requests, Including Implications of Recent Changes

• Understanding recent changes regarding Protected Confidences
• Examining key considerations in deciding to object to production of subpoenaed documents or information requests
• Understanding options to object to or change a subpoena, including:
  • dealing with the subpoenaing party lawyers to reduce the scope of documents caught by the subpoena
  • limiting who can access to documents
  • redacting document

• Exploring circumstances where you might object to a subpoena from the Independent Children’s Lawyer
• What should be contained in your communication to the Court regarding your objection?

Challenges for School Counsellors – Consent to Counselling, Information Requests by a Parent, Student Wishes

Consent to Counselling

• Navigating circumstances where:
  • one parent agrees to the student attending school counselling but the other does not
  • the parents do not agree to counselling but you assess that the student needs it

Providing Information to One Parent or the Other

• Examining factors dictating what information can be provided to a parent or withheld from a parent
• Navigating circumstances where one parent agrees to counselling, but asks that you do not inform the other parent
• Understanding the role of the students wishes/consent:
  • when should student consent be sought in releasing information to parents
  • when do student wishes about parent information access override parent requests
  • understanding how student wishes should be documented where information is going to withheld from one parent or another

Student Wishes Contrary to Court Orders

• Navigating circumstances where the student does not want to go with or stay with one parent despite contrary Court orders regarding spending time with that parent

Family Domestic Violence Orders

Navigating Domestic Violence Orders and Obligations Where You Suspect Domestic Violence / Coercive Control

• Examining common orders made in Intervention Orders in the context of parent relationship breakdown
• Do they override other orders, such as interim Family Court orders?
• What steps should you take to ensure that the Intervention Order is current? Are you entitled to ask for a copy of the orders?
• Understanding your obligations where you suspect domestic violence or coercive control
• What evidence do you require before escalating/reporting?

Rebekah Dorter, Principal, Dorter Family Lawyers & Mediators

3.40      AI Update: Examining Evolving AI Use Options, AI Wellbeing Chatbots, and Managing Student Impacts, Legal Risk and Compliance

Evolving Applications of AI

• Exploring the application of AI affecting school counsellors including:
  • note-taking and report writing
  • assessments including risk assessments
• Understanding the legal risks from the rising use of companion apps and students using AI for wellbeing
• AI governance: examining how AI used by school counsellors must work with an overall AI governance strategy

Ensuring Legal Compliance in Using AI – Navigating Rights, Obligations and Risks with Different Applications

Privacy, Legal and Compliance Requirements

• Examining current legal and risk issues in using AI:

• • privacy and data use risks
  • accuracy/reliability
  • contractual terms of AI software/service providers
• Understanding the application of existing law and regulation, including:
  • privacy and confidentiality, including privacy reforms
  • surveillance laws, use of recordings
  • contractual requirements in a platform’s terms of service, including examining the terms of
  • understanding The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics Framework and application to practitioners

Reviewing Some Available AI Applications for Compliance and Legal Risk

• Exploring some AI applications used in mental health for note taking, risk assessments and reports, meetings and other functions, including:
  • how they operate to provide benefits and efficiencies
  • how/where the applications store and use data and what data protections to they have in place
• running the privacy and legal compliance “ruler” the applications – can you use them in a legally compliant way? What changes or “work-arounds” should you implement or request?

Examining Questions to Check / Ask AI Suppliers and Implementing Effective AI Policies

• Examining key requirements or questions to ask of AI supplier to optimise legal compliance and risk management
• Exploring optimal AI policies to implement for counsellors’ practice

Alec Christie, Partner, Head of Privacy Risk and Digital Law, Atmos

4.40      Chairperson’s Conclusion

4.45      Event Close

Presenters / panelists include:

	Sonya Parsons is a Partner, NFPS, Human Rights and Social Impact at Mills Oakley Lawyers. Sonya focusses on resolving disputes for charities, not for profits and in the education sector, as well as more broadly for commercial entities. In the education sphere she has advised her clients on regulatory investigations by the Department of Education, on bullying and negligence claims, and on licensing and registration issues for childcare centres and non-government schools.
	Dr Tim Lowry is a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist with master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the University of Queensland, and has completed additional postgraduate training in forensic mental health, public health, and health services management. Tim possesses substantial experience in forensic mental health, psychological risk assessment, and intervention, having worked across both public and private practice settings over the past 24 years. For over 14 years he has been employed in the QLD Forensic Mental Health Service, QLD Health, with concurrent part time clinical and forensic psychology private practice seeing adults, couples, and adolescents, as well as offenders
	Leighton Hawkes commenced his career in claims management and other technical roles with a major Australian insurance, working on claims for the NSW Treasury Managed Fund (TMF). This past experience has allowed him to better understand his government client’s needs and has assisted the firm to develop true partnerships with the various agencies for whom he acts. Leighton has acted for the NSW Department of Education for a large number of years. Presently he acts in a diverse range of matters.
	Tim McDonald leads the national workplace practice at Moray & Agnew Lawyers, practising in employment and industrial law, work health and safety, discrimination, bullying and harassment, management of injured workers and termination of employment. Over the last 20 years, Tim has advised and represented employers, from a broad range of industries, including education.
	Rebekah Dorter, Principal of Dorter Family Lawyers and Mediators, holds a BA (Psychology)/LLB from Macquarie University, is an Independent Children’s Lawyer, Nationally Accredited Mediator with the Resolution Institute and the Australian Institute of Family Law Arbitrators and Mediators, is admitted as a Solicitor of the High Court of Australia and has been practicing law for 30 years. Rebekah has a special interest in promoting children’s best interests and helping facilitate parents reach agreement post-separation.
	Alec Christie is a recognised leader in digital, privacy, critical infrastructure and information law. Alec's deep understanding of privacy law allows him to create comprehensive risk solutions, especially in relation to tech innovations, digital transformation, financial services IT regulation and multi-jurisdiction projects. His practical and agile solutions focused approach, especially in a time of rapid tech and regulatory change, together with his extensive experience makes him a highly sought after trusted resource.

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