sa parliament private members bill

Dear all,

Below is the text in relation to the SA Parliament Private Members Bill by Family First - proposing that it be compulsory to notify parents by SMS if students have un-explained absences.

It will be interesting to see where this goes - as it is hard to argue against as a Politician, as the response will be "don't you care about our kids..."

Interesting read...

Cheers
Marvin

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EDUCATION (PARENTAL NOTIFICATION OF NON-ATTENDANCE) AMENDMENT BILL

(CLERK – reads the relevant Notice of Motion)
(PRESIDENT - calls on Hon D.G.E. Hood)
The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD moves – “Mr President, I move Notice of Motion (Private Business) standing in my name, namely ‘That I have leave to introduce a bill for an Act to amend the Education Act 1972’.
(PRESIDENT – “is the motion seconded?”)
(PRESIDENT – “That the motion be agreed to.”)
The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD proceeds to the Bar of Council, and, addressing the Chair says – “A bill, Mr. President”.
(PRESIDENT – “Bring it up”)
The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD takes Bill to the Table, signs the top left hand corner and returns to place.
(CLERK reads bill a first time)
(PRESIDENT calls on Hon D.G.E. Hood)

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: I move that this bill now be read a second time.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Mr President, today I introduce on behalf of FAMILY FIRST a bill to give parents peace of mind and to help ensure that our kids stay at school.

This FAMILY FIRST bill provides that parents must be notified if their child is absent from school without reasonable excuse. This is, surprisingly, not currently the case. The bill also provides that such notification can be made by way SMS messaging technology, or by phone call or by any other means approved of by the Minister – and that such notification must occur before the end of the school day in which the absence is detected.

FAMILY FIRST acknowledges that the then leader of the opposition, and now Premier, was once a leading proponent of parental notification. While in opposition, the Premier issued a press release on the 21st of October 2001 promising that, if elected, he would (quote), “introduce programs to phone the parents of absent students” (end quote) and also to (quote), “coordinate street sweeps with Police to monitor truancy hot spots like shopping centres” (end quote). One other promise was to introduce a pass system for students who are outside of school.

The pass system has now been introduced, but it is now 2007 and we are yet to see the other promises of parental notification and widespread ‘street sweeps’ for truant students implemented.

FAMILY FIRST has also raised school absenteeism as an issue on many occasions in recent years. On the 27th of June 2005, in response to a question from my colleague the Hon Andrew Evans in which SMS technology was discussed, the Minister indicated that the Government’s intention was now to allow individual schools to find their own solutions to school absenteeism – and I quote:

(quote) “The decision to implement the SMS text messaging program to contact parents / carers of a student who is absent from school without explanation is up to each individual school” (end quote)

There could very well be reasons for the Labor party to have now changed course on parental notification. It may very well have been the case that implementing a contact system by way of telephone calls in previous years would have been cost prohibitive. Nevertheless, FAMILY FIRST raises the issue again in the context of new SMS messaging technology which is now available.

It is a tragedy that on any day in our affluent Australian society, some 120,000 to 150,000 teenage students are absent from school –the equivalent of 150 large schools being empty across the country.

Recently reported government figures show that, on average, about 9% or almost 1 in 10 students are absent from school on any given day. Nearly 37% of those absences are recorded as ‘unexplained’.

In some schools, 1 in 4 students are absent. Recently reported figures put our worst schools as Smithfield Plains High (where only 77.1% of students attend on any one day), Enfield 76.5%, Gepps Cross 72.1%, Christies Beach 80.3%, and Fremont-Elizabeth City 82.6%.

Many schools on the APY Lands have very poor attendance rates, with a staggering 600 of the 5400 indigenous students in the state’s far north not attending school on any given day.

Government figures show that:
• Absenteeism rates range from 7% of students absent, on average, every school day in year 3 to 12% in year 10.
• The average number of days absent per student ranges from 3.5 days a term in year 3 to 6 days in year 10.
• Girls have a higher absenteeism rate than boys (9% compared to 8.8% for boys).
• Student absence is most frequent on a Friday.

It is quite simple to calculate that if a student is absent for 5 days a term from reception to year 10 then they have missed more than one whole year of schooling. As I have noted on radio and on television regarding this bill – FAMILY FIRST believes that the one of the most important things our society can provide a child is a quality education – and they can’t get that if they’re not at school.

Truancy has quite properly been described as the “first step in a downward spiral”. Truancy rates have been directly linked with low retention rates, vandalism, shoplifting, unwanted teen pregnancy and crime.
• For schools, frequent absence makes it difficult for teachers who have to continually re-teach materials and skills, and there is also significant cost in time and resources required by school counsellors and parent follow-up.
• For employers, truants are often insufficiently educated and require remedial training.
• For the community, funds used for educating truant students are wasted resources. Further, truancy leads to increased insurance payments and costs in crime and vandalism, as well as increased welfare payments.
• For the students themselves there is a lifelong cost – in reduced earning capacity and reduced health following from that, with an increased representation in the juvenile justice system, and with their capacity to contribute most fully to society reduced for their whole life.

As noted by MGM Wireless, research in the United States has much to offer. The US Department of Health report from 2001 noted that truancy is a clear early warning sign for substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and school dropout.

Three grand juries in Florida’s Dade County in 1991 and again in 1993 found that more than 5,000 of the county’s most serious juvenile offenders had excessive truancy as one of three most common traits.

In a North Miami Beach scheme, again in Florida, police opened a truancy centre and began picking up school aged youth on the street during school hours. Police noted that crime diminished substantially in surrounding neighbourhoods. Interference and illegal use of motor vehicle offences decreased by 22%, and criminal trespass type offences (home break-ins) decreased by 19%.

A May 2002 Journal of School Health article, again from the US, noted that truancy is also an indicator for higher levels of illicit drug use. Truant 8th graders were found to be 4.5 times more likely than other students to smoke marijuana.

Given the data available, FAMILY FIRST believes that truancy is a serious problem that requires a serious response.

In introducing this bill, FAMILY FIRST respectfully disagrees with the Minister for Education, who says that individual schools should implement whatever systems they deem appropriate to combat absenteeism. FAMILY FIRST submits that a mandatory and standard protocol must be implemented.

Out of curiosity, I had my staff call around various schools to try to see what systems were being used in schools around the State: and I was surprised at the hotchpotch of different approaches being used.
• Affluent schools, such as Pulteney Grammar called parents immediately if a student was absent.
• Marryatville High School sends an SMS message to parents.
• Norwood Morialta High uses the SMS messaging system.
• Murray Bridge High - like many schools in disadvantaged areas that could most benefit from reducing truancy - did not indicate any policy for notifying parents.

One common method for informing parents of their child’s absence was to call the parent on the third day of absence. This of course does little to dissuade students from missing one or two days from school, and exposes them to risk, but it also means that the true incidence of absenteeism may be under-reported.

Mr President, studies have shown quite conclusively that a fixed regime where parents are notified of unexplained student absence results in a marked decrease in absenteeism.
• 53 S.A. schools and more than 100 schools nationally use parental notification technology produced by an S.A. Company, MGM Wireless – which is based in Rose Park.
• I’ll take this opportunity to note that Family First has no financial or other links with the company, but we appreciate the work that this extremely successful South Australian business is doing.
• MGM Wireless is now exporting their SMS notification technology around the world.
• Schools which have implemented the system have universally seen a decrease in absenteeism. And decreases of unexplained absenteeism of between 30 and 80% are commonplace.

Mr President, FAMILY FIRST sees benefit in ensuring that all schools across South Australia follow the same protocols for dealing with absent students. We believe that the gold standard is with the schools that practice immediate parental notification, preferably by SMS message – and we encourage this protocol to be adopted.

Naturally, schools will require additional funding to implement the system. Such funding should not come out of our schools current and already stretched resources. FAMILY FIRST believes that long term cost benefits in providing this technology more than justify the costs today.

SMS messaging technology improves communication between the school and parents. Current technology (and I am relying on information provided to me by MGM Wireless) can integrate seamlessly with all the student management databases used in SA public schools. It automatically sends SMS text messages to the parents of students who are late or absent without explanation. It also receives incoming texts from parents, direct to school administrators’ computers.

To quote from some material explaining the system, the technology has:

(quote) “proven to deliver dramatic, consistent reductions in unexplained absence; improves student attendance, safety and welfare; improves communication with parents and the school community; and delivers significant savings and efficiencies over phone calls and letters home.

The vast majority of parents prefer to receive a text message over a phone call. It is discreet and direct, and allows the parent to respond appropriately at a time that suits them.”(end quote)

Mr President, The Capital Territory has now unveiled a scheme for SMS notifications - announced in April by their Education Minister, Andrew Barr.

Western Australia is now also tendering for a state-wide rollout of an SMS notification system – and I note that MGM Wireless is now the preferred (and only) tender for all of that state’s 800 schools.

Such systems, when fully operational, have a secondary benefit in that they can also be used to notify parents of other school situations, meetings, and emergencies. I am told that a school in New South Wales, which had recently deployed such a system, was recently able to notify all parents instantly when flooding required an emergency evacuation of the school. This is obviously a very useful benefit.

Highgate Principal Mr Peter Hansberry also appeared in the media some time ago after implementing the technology at that school, and indicated that they often used the system to let parents know a sports practice session had been cancelled, and that the system could also be used to let parents know of a fire or other emergency. He indicated that he had been involved in a bomb scare at a previous school, and that the technology would have been very useful if available on that occasion.

FAMILY FIRST believes that there are many reasons why students may be absent from school— bullying, learning difficulties, self esteem issues and broader social or family issues. Notification to parents of their child’s absence from school can often open up the lines of communication so that these underlying issues can be approached and dealt with.

We believe that this bill would be good for families, and with those words I commend the bill to Members.