February 28th, 2017
Education and Training Reform Regulations Review Attn: Strategic Policy Division
Department of Education and Training GPO Box 4367
MELBOURNE 3001
SUBMISSION ON THE DRAFT VICTORIAN EDUCATION AND TRAINING REFORM REGULATIONS 2017
To whom it may concern,
I am writing to you as a home educating father of two children with autism. The proposed changes to homeschooling regulations have caused a significant amount of concern for my family. The Department of Education and Training (DET) claim the changes are a ‘light touch’ which home educating parents would certainly not agree with. The proposed changes are in fact quite heavy in their approach and appear to be based on extremely poor, or completely lacking information and research. In addition, adequate consultation did not occur and my family have not received any correspondence from DET about the proposed changes.
The draft regulations and accompanying Regulatory Impact Statement contain many areas of concern that will impact greatly on home educating families, and also children who will need to be removed from school for their well being.
The proposed regulations will keep a child in school for at least 28 days, even if the child is being harmed in some way. This is life threatening for autistic children in particular. The Minister has stated there will be exemptions for “reasonable cause”. This is pointless when schools frequently deny any bullying or assaults have taken place for fear of litigation, or when some principals are so opposed to home education that they choose to report parents to child protection services, as has occurred in Victoria. ‘Reasonable’ is different for everyone. Some principals believe restraining autistic girls or locking autistic children in caged areas to be perfectly reasonable.
The proposed regulations deny a child the right to be protected by immediate removal from school. This contravenes the Victorian Charter for Human Rights and Responsibilities which states in section 17(2) ‘Every child has the right, without discrimination, to such protection as is in his or her best interests and is needed by him or her by reason of being a child.’ Children do not and will not receive protection in an unsafe, harmful school environment and DET are seeking to keep children in a harmful school environment.
The proposed regulations contravene the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 26 (3) which states ‘Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.’ The Education and Training Reform Act (2006) also states in section (1.2.1d) ‘Parents have the right to choose an appropriate education for their child”.
The parent may choose home education, but the regulations will make it much harder to act on and will prevent the parents from exercising that choice, possibly at all.
The proposed regulations contravene the First Principle of Australian Government Policy Making, which states “regulation should not be the default option for policy makers”. If, as DET has stated, there is no data to reflect the processes and outcomes of home education, regulating home education in the proposed fashion is both unwise and poorly informed.
My greatest concern is for autistic children, children with mental health concerns due to school and LGBTQI students who frequently experience severe bullying. How is it at all conscionable to keep these children in school, when home education may be the only option that is in their best interests or that will save their lives? This is for the family to decide, not for bureaucrats from VRQA who have demonstrated their hostily towards home education on numerous occassions.
I have no doubt these regulations will harm children and in some cases contribute to suicide.
I include a screen shot of email from Professor Tony Attwood, who is considered a leading world expert in Asperger Syndrome/Autism Spectrum Disorder, which he sent to my wife regarding the draft regulations. I hope that this expert opinion will allow DET to see that the proposed changes are potentially extremely damaging to autistic children. The email shown is the complete message.