Home schooling

Following concerns from many parents who home school their children, including Clare pictured with Sandy above, regarding the upcoming Education (General Provisions) and Other Legislation Bill 2024, we advocated with the Queensland Minister for Education. This included that each child is unique, and the importance of individualised learning plans is vital. Resulting from this, the Minister has announced welcomed changes to the bill to address the concerns we raised with key points being further consultation with all stakeholders around Student Disciplinary Absences (SDAs) and to regulation involving home schooling. In addition, that a Home School Advisory Group (HSAG) will be established to consider in detail how to gain greater certainty around how Queensland children are receiving a high-quality home education. The full announcement which includes these points is below:

Minister Di Farmer has announced changes will be made to the Education General Provisions Amendment (EGPA) Bill, to avoid unintended consequences.

One of the key changes will include further consultation with all stakeholders around Student Disciplinary Absences (SDAs) and to regulation involving home schooling.

The decision follows feedback from industry. Minister for Education Di Farmer today announced the government will be engaging with more stakeholders as it makes changes to a number of aspects of the draft EGPA Bill, currently before parliament.

The Minister has made this decision following extensive feedback from industry that the proposed changes could lead to unintended consequences.

Education stakeholders have indicated that more work needs to be done in regard to Student Disciplinary Absences (SDAs) and regulation around home schooling in Queensland.  Therefore, those provisions will be withdrawn from the Bill and not progress at this time.

To progress further reforms around SDAs, stakeholders from all sides will come together, to chart a way forward, listen to each other’s perspectives and make sure young people are at the centre of any reforms.

Schools are increasingly complex environments. There is a need to make sure that our most vulnerable children are supported.  However, it is also important to recognise that teachers and school leaders are facing increasing challenges.

It is critical that the government works with education stakeholders to get the balance right by providing educators with the tools and resources they need to make sure these students receive the best education possible.

The Queensland Government has already announced a comprehensive package of supports through the $288m Youth Engagement Package, including:

  • Intensive education case management
  • Specialised alternative learning programs
  • First Nations engagement programs
  • 50 new FlexiSpaces in schools
  • Six new campuses for the successful Queensland Pathways state College

More supports are on their way through Putting Queensland Kids First with further announcements to follow.

A Home School Advisory Group will be established to consider in detail how to gain greater certainty around how Queensland children are receiving a high-quality home education.

The Department’s Home Education Unit (HEU) will also be reviewed in light of the growing number of home schooled children. The government respects the right of parents to home school and will look to provide the appropriate support required by parents.

We have requested more information regarding the HSAG. With our advocacy continuing for targeted resources, as well any recommendations that emanate from the Youth Justice Reform Committee which Sandy is chairing, updates will be posted to Noosa 360.

All abilities students

A report found that between 2016 – 2020 students with disability received approximately 50% of all short-term suspensions, despite making up about 17% of the Queensland school population. First Nations students with disability were five times more at risk as well as students with disabilities who live in out of home care who were six times more at risk. In response to these findings, Sandy contacted the Minister who provided the following:

In 2023, the Department of Education launched Equity and Excellence: realising the potential of every student education strategy (the strategy). The strategy outlines the Government’s vision for a progressive, high performing education system to realise the potential of every student.

The strategy provides clarity for schools about priorities and expectations. The focus for schools is educational achievement, wellbeing and engagement, and culture and inclusion. Further information about the strategy is available at www.education.qld.gov.au/
initiatives-and-strategies/strategies-and-programs/equity-and-excellence.

Safe, inclusive and responsive learning environments are an essential foundation for the strategy. The Disability Standards for Education (2005) confirm the obligations of all schools to provide reasonable adjustments so that schools are inclusive and students with disability can participate, learn and achieve on the same basis as students without disability.

Under the strategy, a targeted suite of initiatives have been developed to address systemic factors that contribute to overuse or overreliance of suspensions and exclusions in Queensland state schools.

This work is driven by a carefully designed, research-informed set of actions, including:

  • strengthened and streamlined responses across government agencies to ensure individual children, young people and their families receive clear, targeted and united support that results in improved attendance and engagement at school;
  • flexible resourcing and access to on-demand specialist expertise to enable rapid early intervention for staff teaching students whose behaviour is impacting their continued
    full-time attendance at school; and
  • high-quality professional development programs to increase the capability and confidence of all school staff to support full-time attendance of every student.

Some key projects have already commenced, including a new proactive monitoring system to intervene early with students who are receiving multiple suspensions. The monitoring system generates daily reports using data from the Department’s online software to raise with regional and central office, the use of suspensions or exclusions for students in Prep to Year 2; students with a disability and Aboriginal students and Torres Strait Islander students in any year level.

This information is used to direct targeted support and resources to schools as a matter of urgency to reduce the risk of further suspensions or exclusions for individual students.

We would appreciate any feedback from local residents via noosa@parliament.qld.gov.au.

Sandy’s advocacy is continuing regarding the Queensland related recommendations from the recent Disability Royal Commission with our latest update at www.sandybolton.com/royal-commission-into-violence-abuse-neglect-and-exploitation-of-people-with-a-disability-update-february-2024

Further information

For those wishing to also advocate with the relevant Queensland Ministers directly regarding anything above, please consider emailing the following:

Please copy in our office via noosa@parliament.qld.gov.au and forward us any response you receive.