Animals can enrich students’ learning experiences, however schools must adhere to consistent and high quality practices for the care and use of animals. Staff are to adhere to the processes of the Schools Animal Ethics Committee for the use of animals for any scientific teaching activity and/or adhere to the processes of Agricultural Education for the use of animals on school farms.

This policy explains what ‘duty of care’ means, how teaching staff may discharge their duty of care to students, and circumstances in which non-teaching staff, external providers and volunteers may owe students a duty of care.

Information and communication technologies are provided by the Department to enable employees and authorised third parties to satisfactorily perform their duties. It is recognised that the associated information, physical equipment, infrastructure and software is at risk of accidental or intentional loss, unauthorised manipulation or unauthorised disclosure. This policy authorises security controls to address those risks.

The Department of Education recognises and supports the diverse needs of all students. This policy is to establish school processes to identify, provide for, monitor and report on students who may be at educational risk.