Education Law Notes – Term 3, 2021

Last term, I wrote of the delight it had been to speak at a couple of "everyone there in person" conferences. Well, for many of us, that respite from restrictions was brief. Many schools have since dusted off their remote learning resources from 2020. Teachers, who are at home, often in less than ideal circumstances, are again teaching students, who are also at home and often in less than ideal circumstances. In the midst of this, we are all wrestling with how to fulfil our duty of care and work, health and safety obligations to staff and students.

So much is now happening "beyond the school gate" that it's worth reflecting upon how we can discipline students for behaviour occurring away from the school campus and after school hours. This issue's first article takes us into this area by examining a recent US case that reached the Supreme Court there.