Page 4793 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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Leave granted.
MS BERRY: I move amendments Nos 1 to 15 circulated in my name together [see schedule 1 at page 4828]. I table a supplementary explanatory statement to the amendments.
The government amendments make some relatively minor changes to the bill. Amendments 1 to 3 of the government amendments to the bill address technical drafting and machinery matters. Amendment 5 inserts definitions for the terms “home education report” and “new registration”, which are adopted for simplicity of drafting.
Amendment 6 inserts a note that draws attention to decisions about home education registration that are reviewable. Some stakeholders raised that this would assist them when reading the act. Amendments 7 and 13 omit the definition of “home education” from chapter 5 and relocate it to the dictionary to the act. Amendment 14 inserts signpost definitions for the terms “home education report” and “new registration” into the dictionary.
The government amendments also set out in detail the regulatory framework for home education. Key is amendment 15, which inserts into the bill amendments to the Education Regulation 2005. The regulations will detail the process for home education registration and particularise requirements related to the home education register and home education reports.
As I described during the in-principle debate, supported by other government amendments, the regulations will set out a single-step registration process but provide a three-month grace period for the first consecutive instance where a child is registered for home education, referred to as a “new registration”. For a new registration, parents do not need to demonstrate compliance with conditions of the registration related to providing a high-quality education and meeting the learning needs of the child. It is also appropriate, given the relatively substantial detail required in drafting, that the framework rests in regulations rather than the principal legislation.
Amendment 8 makes clear that the director-general does not have discretion to refuse to register a child for home education if satisfied that the conditions for registration will be complied with. It achieves this by replacing the word “may” in current section 131(3) with the word “must”. It is a small but important change to give confidence to the home educating community that the government cannot arbitrarily prevent parents from choosing home education, but rather can only do so based on legislated conditions.
Amendment 11 mirrors amendment 8 in clarifying that the director-general has limited discretion when deciding on an application, in this case, for renewal of a home education registration.
Amendment 9 supports the single-step registration process by allowing the government to inspect programs, materials and other records for use in the child’s home education, except in the case of a new registration, where parents may not yet have developed these items.
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