Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, , 1:22:50 to 1:31:07
The department outlines progress on recommendations from the school refusal report, including research initiatives and the incorporation of attendance strategies into the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement.
Topics: Education, Health
Speakers: Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Ms. Meg Brighton, Ms Danielle Donegan, Mr. Tony Cook, Senator Marielle Smith
>> Uh you place one more and then I'll rotate then. Thank you, Senator.
where is it? Sorry, I'm just looking for my short one. Um just interested in understanding um what actions the department has taken uh to date with regards to the recommendations of the report into the national trend of school refusal um and particularly are there any recommendations that the department is not progressing and if so why not
>> thanks Sandra we'll just get the relevant people to the table Sandra I'm sorry we'll be just
Um thanks Senator for the question. So um the uh references committee report had um 14 as you well know has 14 recommendations. Um the Australian government agreed in principle to recommendation one which is about the research excuse me into school refusal and also um uh supported in principle recommendation seven which is about improving awareness and understanding of school refusal. Um I'll ask my colleagues Miss Donegan and Miss um Benji just to elaborate a bit further
>> Thank you Miss Brighton. Uh Dan Donigan, first assistant secretary improving student outcomes. And so the Australian government is working with states and territories and non-government sectors and other key stakeholders to address non-attendance and student absence including school refusal as part of the better and fairer schools agreement full and fair funding 2025 to 2024. Uh this includes a national enabling initiative on collective work to better understand the advice to education ministers on school student attendance. uh its impact on learning and mechanisms to advance evidence-based approaches in addressing non-attendance uh including school refusal. At the moment uh the Commonwealth with states and territories are working together to establish a work plan for that activity. uh that work plan has been consulted quite broadly through uh the interjurisdictional uh elements of our work that go to supporting education ministers including work uh with the non-government sectors as well. Uh we are actively working to progress that uh that work plan. In addition to that, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership introduced a core learning requirement for initial teacher education programs in the December 23 addendum to accreditation standards and procedures. Uh all accredited IT providers have been teaching that core content since September sorry since semester 1 in 2026. So that core content now includes classroom behavior, responding to teacher components that focus on student behavior and engagement in learning. It has strengthened the teacher capability to support students experiencing attendance challenges including school
Good, Miss Donegan. Um, when you look at certainly what the inquiry showed was there's a marked difference between non-attendance where kids just aren't interested in attending and school refusal. Um, I note that since we had that inquiry off its own bat without government funding, School can't Australia is now a significant presence. They've got 16,000 or more parents and families who are getting help from them. Um they're running education sessions. There's a web was a webinar tonight for parents who are experiencing school refusal. It's a really complex area of the attendance picture. Can you point to anything that's specifically addressing school can't as as people who experience this prefer it to be called as opposed to just general non-attendance because I'm certainly haven't seen anything where there's and and even you know behavior issues school can't's not for behavior it's kids who are distressed by school and want to be there and can't get there can you can you point to specific things that address that particular issue.
>> Um, Senator, in um in the agreements that we have with states and territories under the better and fair schools agreement, you might recall we've got a reform domain called well-being for learning and engagement. And each state and territory has quite specific actions that they are taking under each one of those reform domains to um support young people engage with learning. So look at engage with learning in the broadest possible sense. So if I look at um say Tasmania um under their agreement they have quite specific um actions that they are taking about taking an evidence-based approach to strengthening re-engagement support for students to engage with their learning. um in in Queens, oh sorry, in the Northern Territory, um they are doing um a whole range of activity specifically focused on um and I'm going to use the language of disengaged students. Sometimes that's disengaged students, sometimes that's school refusal. Uh it's it's picking up the totality of what the wraparound supports that those young people need to re-engage with learning. and that goes to psychosocial well-being, mental health supports as well as um cultural and community supports.
>> I guess my concern is that we're seeing the numbers of kids who are homeschooling in particular um rising and certainly the feedback that's coming from the community of of parents in particular, many of whom, as you would know, have had to give up work um because they're needing to assist their kids. and there seems to still be a lack of really understanding that this is a very specific issue. Um, and so my question is I guess is is a department tracking kids who are experiencing school can't or school refusal separately to kids who are just disengaged and have general attendance issues or is it just continuing to bundle them all into one category? Because one of the recommendations of the inquiry, for example, was to actually be more specific in our absence codes. for example, to actually understand if a kid just doesn't want to be there as opposed to a kid who really does and can't because of that level of distress.
>> So, Senator, each one of the states and territories, this does sit squarely in their domain in terms of the really tangible actions that they take on the ground for students. We are working with all those states and territories on the national um measurement framework for Australian schooling and one of the components of that we've committed to do together under the schools agreement is around attendance and better information and granularity around attendance and it goes to the very matters that you've highlighted. That is a piece of work that we are working with states and territories on. It will take a while to work through because in order to collect better data, the first instance we have to do is have an agreement with states and territories about the data that will be collected and then there will be the mechanisms to how that data is collected and then reported. We're in early stages of those discussions and we hope over the you know coming 12 months we'll have more to share with the committee about how those discussions are going.
>> All right. Thank you. Um I guess my my final comment I guess would be I think there is a real role uh for the federal education department to play in educating states about school can't and school refusal. I I really feel like there is still a lack of understanding in a lot of our school communities. Um so any any leadership that um the federal government can take in that space I think would be really welcome. Uh and I look forward to hearing the results of the the work that you're doing around absence. I think getting into the detail of that is really important. Thanks, chair. I'm conscious of time. I'll I'll leave it there for this block.