Victorian schools must meet minimum child safety standards or face deregistration

By Henrietta Cook, Jane Lee
Age
February 25, 2015

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-schools-must-meet-minimum-child-safety-standards-or-face-deregistration-20150225-13osdz.html

Victorian schools will be deregistered if they don't have policies to manage child abuse risks and respond to allegations.

Education Minister James Merlino will order all schools to have policies that meet minimum child safety standards or risk having their registration suspended or cancelled, following a recommendation from the Victorian inquiry into child sexual abuse, 

The Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority will also be given new powers to conduct "quick and targeted" reviews to ensure schools meet their obligations.

But the child safe standards for schools have not yet been developed – the Department of Education will begin consultations with stakeholders in coming weeks.

Mr Merlino said the reforms would prompt every school to look at what they could do to reduce the risk of child abuse.

"These changes will help keep our next generation in safe hands by making sure schools are equipped to respond and report appropriately when an allegation of child abuse is made."

Reforms making child abuse policies a condition of schools' registration will be introduced into parliament this week, followed by a Ministerial Order setting out minimum child safe standards.

Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Judy Crowe welcomed the changes but said state schools were already well ahead of other schools when it came to preventing and responding to abuse.

"Victorian principals have been trained in mandatory reporting for many many years. Even in cases where there are allegations that are far fetched, you have to notify the department."

Commissioner for Children and Young People Bernie Geary said too many people aware of child sexual abuse remained quiet.

"This is rightfully insisting that this becomes more than a moral obligation, it becomes a legal obligation."

Eleven of 15 recommendations from the Betrayal of Trust report  still have not been implemented, including reviewing funding for education groups that work with children, to ensure minimum standards for a child-safe environment. Two of the 11 are before parliament.

Ultra-orthodox Jewish school Yeshivah College ignored and failed to keep records of victims' reports of sexual abuse, the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse revealed.

Rabbi Abraham Glick, the school's principal from the period that sex offenders David Cyprys and David Kramer were abusing students, told the commission he only introduced a policy for responding to child abuse allegations in 2007, despite being required to comply with mandatory reporting laws in Victoria since 1994.

Yeshivah College principal, Rabbi Joshua Smukler, did not respond by deadline to questions about the changes.

Independent Schools Victoria chief executive Michelle Green said everyone was responsible for the welfare of children and anything that served to remind people of their obligations was a good thing.

While Catholic Education executive director Stephen Elder said there was no higher priority in Catholic schools than child protection.

"Reassessing and strengthening protection of children in Catholic schools is ongoing and based around best practice rather than minimum standards."