Attention Parents: "OPT-OUT" is a myth. Click here to view and download your rights
If you have not provided a religion on your child's enrolment form (over 80% of Qld parents), by law, your child must not be placed in religious instruction without your signed authority. Your child must be placed in a separate location during religious instruction. Also, by law, Religious Instruction is strictly prohibited for all children in Prep year.
Please report any abuse of the Education Act to spel@secularpubliceducation.com
Chaplaincy
The word ‘chaplain’ or any reference to ‘chaplaincy’ does not appear anywhere within Queensland Education law. However, state school chaplaincy is inextricably intertwined with 1910 legislated Religious Instruction (RI).
This includes all chaplaincy arrangements throughout Queensland funded by the National School Chaplaincy Program (NSCP).
Procrastination by the State
The 1989 Education Act provided the legal basis for the appointment of Chaplains in Queensland state schools. In this Act, school chaplaincy was permitted as an approved religious activity that takes place in a state school. The Education (General Provisions) Act, 1989, section 30, and its accompanying regulations (Part IV), made provisions for RE [sic] in terms of “right of entry” instruction by denominational representatives, selected Bible lessons by class teachers in primary and special schools, and alternative instruction for students withdrawn from these activities. These provisions were, in essence, the same as in the State Education Acts (Amendment Act) of 1910. The Department of Education Manual outlined policy and procedures for the implementation of the 1989 provisions as well as “other activities related to religion that may take place in state schools”. These other activities included school chaplaincy.
Salecich, J., 2001. Chaplaincy in Queensland State Schools: An Investigation.
Thesis, (PHD). University of Queensland
A challenge is being mounted in the High Court to the constitutional legality under s.116 of federal funding being provided to the National School Chaplaincy Program (NSCP).
Considerable financial support from the broader Australian community will be required in order to meet his expected, and unexpected, legal costs. Whatever your faith position might be, this is a significant legal exercise aimed at ensuring Australia really is a secular nation-state, as our forebears clearly intended it to be.
Please secure a stake in your nation's secular future by donating as much as you feel comfortably able to.
"Secular" was deleted
from the Queensland Education Act in 1910.
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