LawSense School Law NSW 2025 – Student Issues Day

Tailored to Law Applying to NSW Non-State Schools. Part of LawSense School Law NSW and Separately Bookable

Program

8.45      LawSense Welcome

8.50      Chairperson’s Remarks

Phillip Heath AM, Principal, Barker College

9.00      Reasonable Adjustments Case Studies – Behaviour, Learning and Activities: Understanding Limits, Effectively Balancing Factors and Navigating Student Discipline

Current Legal Framework and Understanding What is “Reasonable”

• Reviewing the current laws affecting disability discrimination in schools and potential reform

• Exploring circumstances where you can impute disability
• Understanding current interpretations of disability laws, including exploring what is “reasonable”

Information You Should Collect to Assess and Determine Reasonable Adjustments

• Exploring optimum information collection – what information should you seek of whom
• Dealing with reports from external professional provided by the parents or advocates. When should you obtain your own professional evidence?

Extent of Consultation Required

• Outlining the laws requiring consultation
• Examining what constitutes a reasonable level of consultation. What information should be communicated to parents?

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

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

Reasonable Adjustments – Exams and Other Assessments

• Exploring the extent of your obligations to make adjustments for conditions affecting exams or assessments

Reasonable Adjustments Case Studies – Activities, Excursions and Trips

• Interpreting and applying obligations to make reasonable adjustments with school excursions, camps and trips. What are the limits of reasonable adjustments? When can you say a student cannot attend an, excursion, camp or trip?

Reasonable Adjustments Case Studies – Disability Affecting Behaviour

• 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 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

Discipline, Suspensions and Expulsions

• Outlining and balancing key laws:
  • laws applying to student rights and procedural fairness, including Human Rights legislation
  • obligations to staff, including WHS and other obligations
• School discipline examples and case studies: assessing options considering discrimination and other obligations:
  • managing ongoing discipline of a student with behavioural disability issues
  • navigating suspensions
  • expulsion of a student with behavioural disability – key considerations and navigating pitfalls
• Effectively documenting steps, communications, and decisions regarding expulsions to protect your legal position

Ben Tallboys, Principal, Russell Kennedy Lawyers; Legal Counsel, Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA)

Sean Corcoran, Principal, Redlands

10.30    Morning Tea

11.00    Student Bullying: Understanding Obligations to Identify Bullying, Responding to Parent Complaints and Dealing with Issues Outside School

Student Bullying – Outlining Key Obligations

• Duty of care
• WHS and psychosocial risks

Considering Bullying in a Risk Mitigation Framework

• Proactive age-appropriate programs
• Tools for early identification and intervention – the importance of documentation and information systems
• Use of risk assessments to support decision making

Responding to Parent Complaints, Investigations

• Exploring best practice in responding to parent complaints or concerns
• Examining key aspects to consider in an effective investigation

Scope of Obligations 

• Before and After School –Bus/Train Stops and Other Scenarios:
• understanding the extent of your liability in monitoring student transport and activity before and after school, including learnings from recent cases

Social Media, Including Implications of Proposed Age Restriction Laws

• Understanding the extent of a school’s obligations where student bullying occurs on social media, including:
  • understanding the impacts of new proposed aged restrictions on the school’s obligations and monitoring
  • assessing when social media activity outside school can increase legal risk and evolve into a situation a school should actively manage
  • examining the extent of a school’s rights and obligations to manage or respond to students on social media outside school
  • understanding duties where the bullying is from a student not from the school

Jennifer Patterson, Partner, MinterEllison

Marina Ugonotti, Principal, Loreto Normanhurst

12.25    Chairperson’s Remarks

12.30    Lunch

1.15      Chairperson’s Remarks

Marina Ugonotti, Principal, Loreto Normanhurst

1.20      Drafting Effective Letters and Communications to Parents: Dealing with Challenging Student Issues, Responding to Complaints, Difficult Parents and Legal or Media/Publicity Threats

• Exploring circumstances where there is a heightened need in schools to craft communications to advance or protect the school’s legal position, including:
  • student discipline
  • parent complaints/difficult parents
  • student disability
  • investigations
  • severing enrolment
• Understanding your audience
• Developing a communications strategy and objectives and considering your options, including informal versus more formal approaches
• Implementing communications to avoid a claim
• Using “Without Prejudice” communications to try and negotiate an outcome without prejudicing your legal position
• Case studies and examples – what are the ingredients of an effective letters or communications. What has landed well and not so well?

Amy Walsh, Special Counsel, MinterEllison

2.20      Privacy, Access to and Disclosure of Information: Examining Optimum Access for Different Staff and The Limits of Disclosure to Parents and Others

Key Privacy and Confidentiality Laws and Potential Reforms

• Outlining key laws applying to privacy, confidentiality and information sharing in schools
• Examining potential privacy reforms and impacts on schools

Access Within a School

• Examining the elements to consider in deciding what information different staff or departments within the school should be able to access

• Exploring optimum access and sharing within a school of student information, including access to and sharing of:
  • medical information, including parent medical information
  • disability assessments and reasonable adjustments
  • counselling records
  • parent financial information
  • school investigations and police information

Staff Issues and Disclosure

• Understanding what you can disclose to staff when you are dealing with complaints they have made against other staff
• Examining what you can disclose to other staff and the school community when staff are being investigated or are facing / have been subject to internal or external disciplinary action
• Examining what information you can disclose about staff mental health issues
• Exploring what information you can provide school staff about disputes with parents

Disclosing to Parents, the School Community and External Experts

• Understanding the types of records often required by parents
• Examining obligations to share student information with parents including:

• school internal notes or correspondence – what can be required for disclosure?
• providing student records:

• • • sharing and consent from mature minors
    • dealing with information sharing with separated parents

• Complaints of bullying against students – what information can you provide to affected parents about the other student, their family and steps taken
• Navigating disclosure to the school community where there has been an incident or issue, including when it has received media coverage

• Managing disclosure to external experts dealing with student mental health, disability of behaviour issues

Implementing Best Practice Policies

• Exploring best practice privacy policies

Sonya Parsons, Partner, Mills Oakley Lawyers

3.20      Afternoon Tea

3.40      Excursions, Camps and Trips, Risk Assessment and Management Workshop: Implementing Best Practice, Including Navigating Students with Conditions, External Providers and Staff Risks

Recent cases and coronial matters have highlighted the many elements that should be included and balanced in managing the risks involving offsite activities. This session explores best practice risk management in schools using case studies and scenarios, walking through what an optimal risk Management looks like in different circumstances.

Key Legal Obligations Underpinning Risk Assessment and Management

• Examining key legal rights and obligations guiding risk assessments, including:
  • duty of care, including duty of care of the school, of other schools, and of external providers
  • child safety obligations
  • discrimination laws
  • contractual arrangements with external providers or venues
  • WHS laws affecting staff and volunteers, including obligations re regarding psychosocial hazards and industrial manslaughter offences

Risk Assessment and Management Templates

• Optimising and “de-cluttering” risk assessment documents

Collecting Information and Managing Privacy

• Ensuring you obtain all relevant information to manage risk
• Managing privacy obligations, including where external providers are receiving information about students and staff

Risk Assessments by External Providers

• To what extent can you rely on risk assessments provided by external providers?

Case Studies and Scenarios

• Implementing effective risks assessments and risk management involving:
  • a student with a chronic condition or more complex medical needs
  • the school relying on external service providers and staff
  • higher risk, outdoor activities

David Ford, Partner, Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers

4.40      Closing Remarks

4.45      Event Close

Presenters / panelists include:

	Phillip Heath AM has been Headmaster of St Andrew’s Cathedral School, Sydney, Principal of Radford College ACT in 2009. He was made a Fellow of the ACT Branch ACEL in 2011 and in 2018 was awarded as a Member in the general division of the Order of Australia for his service to education and his commitment to creating greater opportunities for Indigenous students. Mr Heath was appointed as the Head of Barker College in 2014.
	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.
	Marina Ugonotti, Principal of Loreto Normanhurst, came to the school in January 2015 in the role of Deputy Principal, after a substantial career as a teacher and school leader at three Catholic independent schools for girls. Prior to joining the Loreto Normanhurst community, she was Deputy Principal at St Vincent’s College Potts Point from 2010 to 2014.
	Jen Patterson has extensive experience as an industrial relations, employment and WHS law advisor. Jen has particular expertise advising schools. She has acted for the Association of Independent Schools in NSW for more than 20 years and sits on their Employee Relations Committee. Jen was the lead adviser to the AISNSW on industrial strategy for its member schools following the two most recent legislative reforms.
	Amy Walsh advises Independent Schools and the NSW Department of Education on matters including enrolment disputes, student issues and wellbeing and safety matters, employment matters, parent disputes, child protection investigations, funding issues and governance.
	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.
	David Ford practices mainly in commercial and education law. He has advised well over 80 educational institutions throughout Australia and is a former Chairman of the Council of MLC School in Sydney. David has presented on education law at conferences throughout Australia and internationally.

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