LawSense School Law VIC 2025 – Student Issues Day

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

Event Program

8.45      LawSense Welcome

8.50      Chairperson’s Remarks

Gerard Houlihan, Principal, St Michael’s Grammar School

9.00    Student Disability and Reasonable Adjustments: 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)

Gerard Houlihan, Principal, St Michael’s Grammar School

10.30    Morning Tea

11.00    Student Social Media Update: Understanding the Implications of Social Media Age Limits and Other Proposed Reforms

New Laws on Social Media Age Limits

• Examining the new laws regarding age limits on social media use, including examining exceptions
• Exploring the implications of the new laws for schools:
  • 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
• Updating school polices to deal with the changes in social media laws

Other Social Media/Cyber Reforms

• Outlining other cyber/social media reforms – duty of care

Student Bullying: Understanding Obligations to Identify Bullying, Dealing with Issues Outside School, Responding to Parent Complaints and Learnings from Recent Cases

Student Bullying – Outlining Key Obligations

• Outlining key laws applying to bullying and violence in schools, including:
  • defining bullying
  • duty of care

Obligations to Proactively Identify Bullying or Act on Suspicions

• Exploring the extent of your obligations to:
  • proactively identify and investigate bullying
  • investigate suspicions of bullying
• What tools can you use and what policies should you consider

Extent of Obligations to Manage Issues Outside School

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

Recent Findings Against Schools Regarding Bullying Management – Where Have Schools Come Unstuck?

• Learnings from recent cases – how should schools approach multiple and repeated instances of bullying?  What is a school’s obligation to pro-actively identify patterns of bullying?

Responding to Parent Complaints, Investigations

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

Note-Taking and Record Keeping

• Optimising note-taking and record keeping to protect your legal position, including time-saving approaches and tips

Policies

• Updating policies to optimise responses to bullying and address legal risks

Jason Newman, Principal, Gilchrist Connell Lawyers

12.25    Chairperson’s Remarks

12.30    Lunch

1.15      Chairperson’s Remarks

Eve Bignell, Senior Legal Counsel, Xavier College; Former, Director, Workplace and Education Law Branch, Legal Division, Department of Education and Training, Victoria

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?

Steven Troeth, Partner, Gadens

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

Cecelia Irvine-So, Practice Leader, Education & Corporate Advisory, Moores

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 a risk assessment involving offsite activities. This session explores best practice risk assessment in schools using case studies and scenarios, walking through what an optimal risk assessment would look 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 versus other schools, venues or external providers
  • child safety obligations
  • discrimination laws
  • contractual arrangements with external providers or venues
  • WHS laws affecting staff or volunteers, including laws regarding psychosocial hazards
  • industrial laws or agreements

Risk Assessment and Management Templates

• Optimising and “de-cluttering” risk assessment documents

Collecting Information and Managing Privacy

• Ensuring you obtain all relevant information to optimise the risk assessment
• Implementing approaches to manage 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 is relying on external service providers and staff
  • higher risk, outdoor activities are involved

Dr David Maddocks, Partner, Perry Maddocks Trollope Lawyers; Former Neuropsychologist

4.40      Closing Remarks

4.45      Event Close

Presenters / panelists include:

	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.
	Steven Troeth has extensive experience in the education sector, including acting for independent and Catholic schools. He advises on employment, student and parent issues, including staff and teacher disputes, discrimination, bullying, cyber and social media issues, enterprise agreements and contractual disputes.
	Melissa Scadden advises employers on the full gamut of employment law matters. She has a particular interest in assisting clients to take a proactive approach to building workplaces where people can thrive, rather than just mitigating risks when problems arise. Melissa has experience working with large private sector clients across various industries including education, local and state government, statutory authorities, healthcare, professional services and labour hire.
	As Firbank Grammar’s 10th Principal, Ms Jenny Williams is a passionate and dedicated leader. In her 23rd year of Principalship, she has worked in three different countries and led four schools in NSW, New Zealand and Victoria, in both coeducational and single sex environments. Whilst each school has unique characteristics and culture Jenny has found that what is common across them all is the capacity and desire of children to learn and the fundamental importance of high impact teaching
	Alishia Prpich has a broad employment and discrimination practice, with experience in a range of industries. Whilst her practice covers both litigious and non-litigious work, she has significant litigation expertise, and routinely conducts employment and discrimination litigation in a range of jurisdictions. Alishia routinely acts for and advises a number of schools and governing authorities on various education-specific and child safety matters, including reportable conduct matters. Alishia is able to provide her clients in the education sector with holistic advice on responding to a range of sensitive child-related matters.
	Nick Duggal has worked in the area of workplace relations for the past 13 years. He provides practical solutions that enable employers to resolve employment issues commercially and expeditiously. His clients include publicly listed and multi-national companies, Government instrumentalities, insurers, Schools, law firms, human resources and labour-hire companies, associations and hospitals.
	Natalie Charles is Principal St Catherine’s School. Natalie was previously Principal of Mentone Girls’ Grammar, spending the last five years leading a culture of excellence, focusing on educational research, staff development, student empowerment and innovation. Prior to leading Mentone Girls’ Grammar, Natalie held positions of Head of Senior School at Carey Baptist Grammar School, and Director of Staff at Melbourne Grammar School. She was also the Head of Melbourne Grammar’s Indigenous Program for more than ten years and currently sits as a member of the Melbourne Grammar School Council.
	Adam Foster advises on policy and contract preparation and interpretation, unfair dismissals, terminations, workplace investigations, general protections disputes, enterprise bargaining and underpayment reviews. He offers experience across a range of industries including faith-based enterprise, education, manufacturing, construction and health.
	Nikki Kirkup is the Principal of The Knox School in Melbourne; an ELC – Year 12 co-educational independent school in Melbourne’s South-Eastern suburbs. With over 20 years of experience, Nikki, originally from the UK, has amassed a wealth of experience in the field of education having held significant leadership roles in schools in Switzerland, the UK and Australia.
	Eve Bignell is a specialist education lawyer, with experience in providing practical and strategic legal advice to schools across all areas of law impacting interactions with students, families, staff and regulators. Starting her career in business roles in the defence and aerospace sector, Eve worked as a junior lawyer in private law firms practicing medical negligence, discrimination, employment and insurance law. Eve then moved to government law at the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office, practicing primarily in employment law and human rights, before specializing in education law. Eve was an in-house lawyer at the Department of Education for 12 years.
	Cecelia Irvine-So is accredited as a specialist in Business Law by the Law Institute of Victoria. Cecelia works for a significant number of independent schools regarding joint ventures, corporate compliance, enrolment terms, and privacy compliance, including the new mandatory data breach reporting regime. Cecelia believes in best achieving change and compliance by drawing on the powerful values of each school.
	With almost 30 years of experience in independent schools across Australia, Chrissy Gamble has taught and led from Kindergarten through to Year 12. Her career spans classroom teaching, governance, advocacy, funding programs, strategic planning, and curriculum development. Chrissy holds a Master of Education from Murdoch University and a Bachelor of Arts (Education) from Curtin University. Her Master’s research focused on gifted and talented students and the role accelerated learning plays in supporting their development
	Mark Murphy has been an educator in Catholic Schools for over 36 years. The last 25 of which have been spent exclusively in Catholic boys’ educational settings. During this time, he has held positions of leadership in several schools in student wellbeing, Teaching and Learning and faith leadership. Mark was Principal at Marcellin College Bulleen for 11 year and was appointed to the position of Principal at Whitefriars College Donvale in 2020.

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