WA school principals dragged into parenting disputes seek support for complex family law issues

Parental disputes as minor as who’s doing the school pick-up are pushing WA school leaders into confusion as they struggle to navigate complex family law matters, prompting principals’ groups to seek more support from the Education Department. WA Primary Principals Association president Niel Smith said he received calls “on a weekly basis” from members asking for advice about family law issues. “WAPPA has been working in collaboration with the department for the last six months on a family law-matters working party,” he revealed in the association’s latest newsletter. “We appreciate the complexity these matters bring and the concern that arises at the school level when school staff tend to get ‘caught in the middle’. “We are hopeful that a policy and a suite of resources for school leaders and parents will be made available in the near future as a result of the working party’s activities.” Mr Smith told The Sunday Times that principals often had to interpret how to apply family-law matters in school settings, including court-issued parenting orders, violence restraining orders or requests from independent children’s lawyers. Sticking points included which parent was authorised to enrol a child, access their school reports, watch them at an assembly or pick them up from school. “These matters have always existed, but schools are seeing an increase in frequency and complexity of the requests, often without orders,” Mr Smith said. “School leaders’ priority is the safety of children, so decisions regarding when to release children — and who to — can be cause for concern when you’re not a legal expert in interpreting various orders. Schools want to do the right thing, but quite often parents aren’t aware of what’s reasonable to request. “Ultimately, it’s about being able to provide greater safety and clarity so schools and parents can work collaboratively — rather than it being seen as a battle.” Catherine Leach, chief executive at Perth family law firm Leach Legal, said she had fielded calls from school principals asking for advice on family law matters. “I get calls from schools on a Friday afternoon where they say ‘we’ve got the kid in the office and the parents are outside — one’s saying they’ve got a court order and the other is saying that’s not the right order’,” she said. “I’ve had cases where I’ve said to the school, ‘make sure the child is put into a separate room so they’re not seeing the stuff that’s going on between their parents’.” Ms Leach said restraining orders between parents could cause problems if they both turned up at a school at the same time, such as for a sports carnival. “The courts are very conscious of family violence and because of the terrible tragedies that have occurred they may err on the side of caution and grant a restraining order rather than not — so there are possibly more restraining orders — which create more of these situations,” she said. Deputy director-general for schools Steve Watson confirmed the department was working with primary and secondary school principals’ groups to address an increase in requests for school staff involvement in family disputes. “We are supporting school leaders and staff in navigating these challenges, while maintaining safe and respectful work environments,” he said. “A range of supports, including the development of a new policy and resources for schools and parents/caregivers, are being explored, along with guidelines to assist schools. “This work is ongoing, and schools can currently seek advice from their education regional office and the department’s legal and legislative services.”