My School Website
Feuding parents use My School evidence to decide which schools kids should attend
COUPLES locked in bitter legal disputes are using data from the My School website to argue over the school their children should attend.
Family Court judges and federal magistrates are increasingly being asked to consider data from the website, which lists schools’ literacy and numeracy scores, when deciding where children of broken relationships should be educated.
In one case, a NSW man wanted his children moved from their public school in Newcastle to a Catholic one on the state’s central coast, where he was living with his new partner. The man argued his children would be better off at the new school, whose students had achieved higher results on its NAPLAN tests.
Family lawyer Matthew Shepherd said the courts were eager to accept the data into evidence and had been giving it some weight in their deliberations.
“In cases like this, the court needs to decide what’s in the best interest of the child, and there’s no presumption in favour of either parent,” Mr Shepherd said.
“Parents are looking for anything that can give them a strategic advantage in getting the court to rule in their favour. Statistical evidence like this can be used to do that.”
However, courts so far have been reluctant to embrace NAPLAN results as a justification for moving children. For instance, in the case of the NSW man, federal magistrate Kevin Lapthorn “respected” the father’s perspective, but “found no evidence to suggest the children were not doing well in their current school”.
In another case, magistrate Judith Walker ruled in favour of a Sydney mother who submitted NAPLAN results, but said the main reason for her decision was that the child should attend a school that was “reasonably convenient to where she lives”.
When the My School website was launched in January, Prime Minsiter Julia Gillard said it would give parents new information when choosing schools for their children.
“My School is giving parents more information than they’ve ever had before,” said Ms Gillard, who was then education minister.
School Education Minister Peter Garrett declined to comment yesterday.
Australian Education Union president Angelo Gavrielatos said he was disturbed by the legal trend, which he described as an unfortunate consequence of the website. “When a government attaches so much value to something like NAPLAN, it’s only reasonable that parents would attach a similar amount of value to it,” he said.
“NAPLAN is a one-time snapshot of children’s results, which at most provide a useful tool to teachers. I’ll leave the courts to decide how to judge it but if they asked our opinion it would be exactly that.”
Mr Shepherd said that only a fraction of schooling disputes reached the courts, and it was likely the same discussion was occurring privately in separated families across the country.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/feuding-parents-use-my-school-evidence-to-decide-which-schools-kids-should-attend/story-fn59niix-1225976464837
