Updating & Optimising Contracts, Declining Enrolment & Dealing With Challenging Scenarios
Date | 21 August 2024 |
Time | 10.00am-1.30pm AEST (Syd/Melb/Bris Time) |
Venue | Live Online with recording (recording access expires 21 September 2024) |
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
10.00 LawSense Welcome
10.05 Chairperson’s Introduction
10.10 Refusing Enrolment – Navigating Rights and Obligations and Managing Communications
- 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
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
Delayed or Conditional Enrolment
- Exploring options to delay enrolment or make enrolment conditional
Defensible Documentation of Decisions
- Documenting decisions to refuse enrolment to optimise legal defensibility
Jennifer Patterson, Partner, MinterEllison
11.10 Break
11.20 Updating Enrolment Contract Frameworks to Meet Legal Risks and Compliance and Optimise Effectiveness
- Outlining key laws applying to enrolment contracts, including the Australian Consumer Law
- Learning from notable cases
- Identifying key contract clauses and documents to have in the current environment
- Addressing particular challenges, including:
- privacy and consent issues
- inclusivity including sex/gender
- information regarding student disability
- separated families
- student and parent behaviour
- Consumer Law issues and fee recovery
- other particular programs, including scholarships
- Changing enrolment terms during the course of the student’s enrolment at the school
- 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
- managing waitlists
- Optimising communications with parents and students
Ben Tallboys, Principal, Russell Kennedy Lawyers; Legal Consultant to Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA)
12.20 Break
12.30 Case Studies: Relying on Enrolment Documentation in Challenging Scenarios, Including Student and Parent Behaviour, Expulsions, Withdrawals and Fee Recovery
- Learnings from how schools have relied on enrolment documentation in particular circumstances and examining where schools have come unstuck. Areas include:
- involvement of wellbeing staff, including student counselling
- suspension of expulsions for student behaviour
- 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 withdrawal of 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 Lawyers; Legal Consultant to Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA)
1.25 Chairperson’s Conclusion
1.30 Event Close
Presenters / panelists include: