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COMMITTEE REPORT

The committee's report was tabled on 26 August 2014.

View: Report No 40 - Education and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014

View: Government response to tabled report - Report No 40 - Education and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014

ABOUT THE BILL

The Education and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 was referred to the committee by the Legislative Assembly on 26 August 2014. The committee is required to report back to the Legislative Assembly by 20 October 2014.

The Bill aims to support school autonomy by enhancing localised decision-making, support school safety, improve educational outcomes and reduce red tape. It would do this by:

• Strengthening powers for schools to deal with ‘hostile persons’
• Providing non-state school principals with the power to grant exemptions from compulsory schooling or compulsory participation phase requirements in certain circumstances
• Restricting mature-age student enrolments to age-appropriate settings
• Permitting the Director-General (DG), Department of Education, Training and Employment (DETE), to obtain information from the Queensland Police Service about charges and convictions to assist principals with disciplinary decisions
• Enabling the DG, DETE to delegate the power to commence prosecutions against parents for the offences of failing to comply with compulsory schooling and compulsory participation requirements
• Providing that interstate students who live near a state school in their own state or territory are not entitled to free distance education in Queensland, and to clarify the ability of the DG, DETE to cancel enrolment in distance education if fees are not paid
• Freeing international educational institutions from unnecessary regulatory burden by removing the requirement for these entities to be approved by Governor in Council before operating in Queensland
• Creating clearer exemptions to confidentiality provisions in the Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 for the release of information for research and law enforcement purposes.

The Education and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 and Explanatory Notes are available from the Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel.

The Hansard transcript of the explanatory speech for the Bill can be found online.

Submissions

The committee invites submissions addressing any aspect of the Bill, from all interested parties. The closing date for written submissions was Thursday 25 September 2014.

Guidelines for making a submission to a parliamentary committee are available here: Guide to making a submission.

timeline

Public briefing: The Department of Education, Training and Employment briefed the Committee about the Bill on 27 August 2014 - Transcript   The department provided a correction to the record on 10 September 2014. Also see page 1 of the transcript of departmental briefing held on 8 October 2014. 

The department provided an additional briefing on 8 October 2014 - Transcript 

Public hearing:  Wednesday 8 October 2014 - Transcript