School Law: Student Violence, Informed Consent & the School Counsellor’s Role
Identify your school’s legal rights and obligations when students are violent either at home or at school, and what you can and should do to support families, students and staff. Delve into the school counsellor’s perspective and what they can do to manage student violence. Gain a step by step guide into when you should involve the police, what will happen, and what you need to know and do throughout the process. Finally, consider informed consent, what it means for your school, & your school’s legal duties
Description
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
Chair: Natalie Blok, Barrister, Howell’s List
9.00am to 9.30am: The Legal Response to Adolescent Violence: Analysis of the Policy and Legislative Drivers
- Explore the findings of the CIJ's Positive Interventions for Perpetrators of Adolescent violence in the home (PIPA) project
- Identifying the common themes in the lives of many adolescents using violence against family
- Understanding what an effective response to violence looks like in the context of the policy and legal settings
- What the future holds in a legal sense
Presented by Elena Campbell, Associate Director, RMIT Centre for Innovative Justice and Principal Chief Investigator of the ANROWS funded PIPA Project
9.30am to 10.00am: Managing and Supporting Families and Students who are Violent in the Home or at School
- Breaking the cycle of violence; understanding the reasons why young people might use violence and how to support them to behave differently including risk factors and vulnerabilities
- How to hold young people responsible and accountable for their actions while also attending to and strengthening the relationship between the student, parents and the school
- Identifying resources for schools and school counsellors to support the work you do to assist violent students to take responsibility for their use of violence
Presented by Larisa Freiverts, Team Leader and Senior Family therapist at Meridian Youth and Family Therapy Team, Anglicare Victoria
10.00am to 10.10am: Break
10.10am to 10.35am: Student Violence: the School Counsellor’s Perspective
It is important to be able to provide effective interventions with young people and their families to impact this pattern of behaviour. This presentation will explain how a counsellor can use a collaborative approach to violence to empower young people to make different choices in their lives and enable families to take a strong stand against violence.
Presented by Bianca Moran, School Psychologist, St Margaret’s and Berwick Grammar School
10.35am to 11.05am: When the School Should Involve the Police, What to Expect and Your Role Once Police are Called
- Police strategy and training in response to adolescent violence in the home
- What the research tells us about adolescents who use violence (there’s generally a trauma history)
- Police response framed as a child safety issue
- Some key aims of the police’s Enhanced Youth Outreach program to engage with youth offenders and their families in order to understand what needs to change, to divert from future offending
- How police can partner with school leaders and counsellors as part of the interventions taken to deal with issues like disengagement from education/employment and cognitive disorders
Presented by Senior Sergeant Dagmar Andersen, Victoria Police, Leading Senior Constables Grace Buckley and Julianne Prenc, Victoria Police -Enhanced Youth Outreach Program
11.05am to 12.05pm: Informed Consent from Students and Parents in the School
- Informed consent
- What is it?
- When do you need it?
- How do you obtain it?
- When can a student consent to counselling services?
- Exploring practical challenges
- Generic and template consent forms: the pros, cons, what works and what doesn’t
- What happens when parents refuse consent?
- What do you do if one parent says ‘Yes’ but the other parent says ‘No’
- Obtaining consent under family law rules
Presented by Cecelia Irvine-So, Team Leader, Moores with commentary by Bianca Moran, School Psychologist, St Margaret’s School and Berwick Grammar School
12.05pm to 12.15pm: Final Q&A and Closing Comments by the Chair
For Teachers:
Attend and earn 3 Professional Development Hours (NSW)
Completing this conference will contribute 3 hours of NSW Education Standards Authority PD addressing 6.2.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW
Attend and earn 3 CPD points (QLD, WA, SA)
Attending this conference will contribute 3 hours of CPD addressing the standards as listed from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining teacher registration7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements: understand the implications of, and comply with, relevant legislative, administrative, organisational and professional requirements, policies and processes.
Attend and earn 3 hours of PD (VIC)
Attending this conference will contribute 3 hours of PD addressing the standards as listed from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining
Proficient Teacher registration in Victoria.7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements: understand the implications of, and comply with, relevant legislative, administrative, organisational and professional requirements, policies and processes.
For Lawyers:
Attend and earn 3 CPD units in Substantive Law