Legislation introduced in South Australia designed to better to protect against parents

South Australia has introduced new legislation to Parliament to give schools and preschools greater powers to manage violent and abusive parents.

The Education and Children’s Services (Barring Notices and Other Protections) Amendment Bill 2024 strengthens the ability of principals, preschool directors and other education leaders (site leaders) to ban parents and others who pose a threat to the safety or wellbeing of staff and students or who disrupt learning at schools and other education settings.

It’s important to note that if a parent or carer is barred or directed to leave, their child or children are not prevented from attending their school or preschool as normal.

The legislation will broaden the grounds on which an individual can be barred and will enable a site leader to bar a person from coming within 25 metres of the boundary of a school, preschool or service, and comes following ‘a dramatic rise’ in the number of incidents of parental abuse, which have led to a 200 per cent increase in parental bans in public schools over the past five years.

Other responses, such as formal warning letters and reminders about expectations of respectful behaviour, have increased in public schools by more than 250 per cent.

Parents and carers were the top source of issues reported by a site leaders that involved bullying (57.9 per cent), cyberbullying (88.5 per cent), gossip and slander (65.1 per cent) and sexual harassment (39 per cent) in the latest Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing survey data report in March 2024.

Under the new rules, a site leader will now be able to issue a direction to leave or a barring notice if they believe a person poses a risk to the safety or wellbeing of anyone at their site.

For the first time, this will include anyone engaging in vexatious communication with, or about, a member of staff via any online platform, to ensure staff are protected when they are not at work.

A barring notice will be able to prohibit a person from communicating in any way with a member of staff.

Barring orders would also protect from abuse or threatening behaviour at off-site activities, such as camps and excursions.

The maximum period for which a person may be barred will increase from three months to six months, and the maximum penalty for offences will increase from $2500 to $7500.

“Introducing this Bill fulfills a commitment we made to introduce legislation to give schools and preschools more power to stop abusive parents in their tracks,” Premier Peter Malinauskas said.

“Educators and the wider community expect schools and preschools to be safe and supportive learning environments where there is no place for violence or intimidating and threatening behaviour. Everyone has the right to feel safe at work and our educators are no exception.”

The new provisions will apply to both schools and preschools in the public, Catholic and independent school sectors.

“Our principals and teachers are being subjected to a growing level of harassment – this is completely unacceptable,” Education Minister Blair Boyer said.

“I have been disturbed by the stories I have heard about some of the behaviour teachers and principals are experiencing.”

“Most people behave respectfully when communicating with staff, but we have heard from our educators that some parents and caregivers’ behaviour has worsened and I will not sit on my hands and do nothing.”

“In addition to giving our school and preschool leaders more power to deal with this behaviour, I hope the changes will also provide a stronger deterrent for those who choose to abuse, threaten or attempt to intimidate our staff.”