The Conflicts of Interest policy and procedures apply to all employees and contractors of the Department of Education and describes the reporting and management obligations related to actual, perceived and potential conflicts of interest.

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.

The Department of Education (the Department) supports high quality, ethical research where the findings have the potential to inform decision making and contribute to improvements in school education policy, staff competency, operational practices, student and staff wellbeing or student achievement and progress.

This policy aims to maximise the flexibility available to school communities in the configuration of the school day within the constraints of legislation and industrial agreements. The Director General determines the days in each year on which government schools are to be open for educational instruction of students.

The Department registers home educators and evaluates their educational programs and children’s progress.