NSW Student Wellbeing - Understanding, Initiating and Updating an Expulsion

This help article is relevant to New South Wales schools only.

The NSW Expulsion process has been developed in accordance with the Department of Education Student Behaviour Policy and it's accompanying specifications.  Terminology relating to the policy will be used where it is relevant to a specific feature.  This will assist with the understanding of the process.

Before a student can be expelled a negative behaviour incident must exist.   An Expulsion can be initiated from an Suspension or directly from a negative behaviour incident. 

The Expulsion process utilises 2 separate 'designated' pages.  The Suspension Post Page is used to hold the internal expulsion information and will be closed to caregiver viewing.  The Suspension Letter Page is designed to hold the populated DoE templated expulsion letters that will become visible to caregivers once published.  It is important to ensure that these pages are set up correctly before beginning, as they will hold sensitive information.  A Suspension Post page and Suspension Letter page will exist in your Hero site.  Contact Hero Customer Support if you do not wish to have either of these pages.  The Expulsion process can be used as a stand alone feature, however, creating posts and letters will provide a better historical record along with the ability to analyse data using Tag Data Sheets.

The details of an Expulsion are uploaded to the DoE every time a change is made.

The following DoE specific parameters are used in the expulsion process.  These parameters will be amended if DoE policy requirements are updated.

• The reason for expulsion
  • As outlined in the DoE documentation - "The Principal and Director, Educational Leadership can consider expelling a student from a particular school on the following groups.
    • serious behaviour or behaviours of concern where behaviour interventions and risk management strategies, including suspensions, have not been successful
    • unsatisfactory participation in learning for students aged 17 years and over  (not currently applicable to Hero schools)"
• Only Principals can expel a student (Hero also permits a Principal's Delegate to perform this function as the intended use of the Principal's Delegate is to stand in for the Principal when not available).
• The durations required for the expulsion process
  • up to 15 consecutive school days for the suspension
  • 7 days required for caregivers to respond (review date set to 7 days)
• The expulsion process timeframe can be extended with DEL approval

This article contains the following section:-

• Setting the DEL Options
• Understanding the Expulsion Process Options
• Creating an Expulsion from a Suspension
• Creating an Expulsion from a Behaviour Incident
• Making the Decision NOT to Expel
• Making the Decision to Proceed with the Expulsion
• Printing an Expulsion Letter

SETTING THE DEL OPTIONS

The Director, Education Leadership (DEL) plays an important role in the suspension process.   Prior to using the suspension process, a school needs to set up the DEL information.

1. Navigate to the Administration menu.  If you have a wide-screen device this will already be visible on the left-hand side of your screen. If not, click on the Administration menu icon at the top left-hand side of your screen.

2.  Under the heading Options select NSW Department of Education

3.  Enter the DEL Name, Contact Email Address and Contact Phone Number in the fields provided.   These are required for the templated letters.

4.  Upload an electronic signature to be used when printing a caregiver suspension or explusion letter.

Note: This area also contains the Principal's signature that will be included when printing an associated letter.

UNDERSTANDING THE EXPULSION PROCESS OPTIONS

Throughout the Expulsion process several options will be available for all stages.

1.  The Information icon will display the internal post created for the Expulsion.  This gets its information from the Suspension Post page.  The internal post will collect relevant information as the student advances through the process.

2.  The Envelope icon will display any caregiver letters relating to the expulsion.  This information is obtained from the Suspension Letter page.

3.  The Edit icon provides the ability to edit the information previously entered.

CREATING AN EXPULSION FROM A SUSPENSION

Creating an expulsion from a suspension will go directly to the Written Notice of Potential Expulsion with the post and letter details being obtained from the suspension.

1.  Navigate to the Administration menu.  

2.  Click the dropdown arrow beside STUDENT WELLBEING to expand.  Click  SUSPENSIONS.

     

 3.  Click SUSPENSIONS or EXTENDED SUSPENSIONS to locate the one to be escalated.

         

4.  Click the START EXPULSION PROCESS icon

         

5.  The following confirmation screen will be displayed.  Click CONFIRM to proceed.

6.  The entry created in the Expulsion registered will be displayed in green.   Click the EDIT icon to check the entry, edit details, add attachments or add further information.

7  Click the Post/Letter icons to view the created post and letter.

8.  The entry will remain under Written Notice of Potential Expulsion until ready to proceed.

CREATING AN EXPULSION FROM A BEHAVIOUR INCIDENT

1.  Navigate to the Administration menu.  

2.  Click the dropdown arrow beside STUDENT WELLBEING to expand.  Click  BEHAVIOUR INCIDENTS to view a list of all students with entries in the current year.

3.  Utilise filtering to find the student to be expelled.  

4.  Click the Create Expulsion Icon to create an entry in the Expulsion Register   NB:  An Administrator will be able to action this process but only a Principal or Principal's Delegate will be able to take it any further.

5.  The actions above will create a Pending entry in the Expulsion Register and will take you directly to Expulsions.  The incident you are working on will be partially highlighted green.   The Name, Year and Class columns are frozen so will remain static when scrolling horizontally.  

6.  If you are a Principal or Principal's Delegate, click the Arrow icon to create the Written Notice of Potential Expulsion.   If you are not a Principal or Principal's Delegate you will only see the information icon which shows the behaviour incident post.

Note: There is no turning back from this point as the expulsion will upload to the DoE once it is created.  A warning popup will be displayed to prevent you proceeding in error.

7.  The detail entry screen will appear.   Complete the required parameters.

• Check the Title.   This defaults to the behaviour incident category but can be updated.
• Check the Suspension Start Date.  The student is suspensed during this process.  The Suspension Start Date will default to the current day. 
• Check the Suspension End Date.  The Suspension End Date will default to 15 schools days after the current day. 
• Set the Caregiver Meeting Date.  This is mandatory so if unknown entered a proposed date.
• Set the Review Date.   This defaults to 7 school days from the suspension start date.
• Select the Nominated School Contact.  This will default to the person chosen as the 'Referred to' person for the behaviour incident but can be changed.  To change, click the x to remove the existing person and start typing or click the spacebar for a selection list of staff.  

9.  Start typing or tap the spacebar to select the Caregiver who will receive the 'Written Notice of Potential Expulsion' letter.  Only Primary, Secondary or Caseworker Caregivers will be available for selection.  Only one caregiver can be selected so it needs to be the student's main point of communication.

10.  Enter the Factual Details of Behaviours of Concern and the Specific Details of Documents.  The Factual Details of Behaviours of Concern feeds into the caregiver letter.   Enter this information with the understanding that it will show on a formal document and will be visible to caregivers.

11.  Click ADD ATTACHMENTS to upload any supporting documentation required by the caregiver.  This will show as a post attachment on the Suspension Letter page.

12.  Click NEXT.

13.  The caregiver 'Written Notice of Potential Expulsion' letter(s) will be displayed in editable form.  Check the letter carefully and apply any custom changes.  NB:  These will be created in Draft so will not be visible to the caregiver until published.   

Notes:

• It is not necessary to insert a signature at this point.  When printing the chosen letter, the signature uploaded to your school settings will be automatically inserted.
• Once the letter has been created any editing of detail via this process will NOT update the letter.   An already created letter can be edited or deleted by a Principal or Principal's Delegate via the designated Suspension Letter page.   This will amend the post only.

14.  Click BACK to go back, CANCEL to return to Pending and CONFIRM to complete the process.

15.  The action of expulsion will place the student on suspension from the start to end dates.  This will directly update the student's attendance.  Any adjustments in the dates will subsequently adjust the attendance.  It will also become clear to the student's teacher that the student is on suspension.

16.  Click WRITTEN NOTICE OF POTENTIAL EXPULSION to view all entries at this stage.

MAKING THE DECISION NOT TO EXPEL

Following consultation with the caregiver and student, the decision may be made NOT to expel the student.  

1. Navigate to the Administration menu.  

2.  Click the dropdown arrow beside STUDENT WELLBEING to expand.  Click EXPULSIONS, and go to the WRITTEN NOTICE OF POTENTIAL EXPULSION tab to view a list of all students with an expulsion at this stage.

3.  Click the Close icon.

4.  A confirmation screen will be displayed with the ability to adjust the Suspension Early End Date.  Click CONFIRM to proceed. 

5.  The entry will be moved to the NOT EXPELLED tab.

MAKING THE DECISION TO PROCEED WITH THE EXPULSION

Following consultation with the caregiver and student, the decision to continue with the expulsion may be actioned.

1. Navigate to the Administration menu.  

2.  Click the dropdown arrow beside STUDENT WELLBEING to expand.  Click EXPULSIONS, and go to the WRITTEN NOTICE OF POTENTIAL EXPULSION tab to view a list of all students with an expulsion at this stage.

3.  Click the Arrow icon to issue a 'Notice of Decision to Expel'.

4. Update the Review Date or Suspension End Date if necessary.   Enter the Reason for the Decision.

5.  If the term of the suspension is to be extended, DEL Approval is required.  Tick DEL Approval for suspension extension to acknowledge that this has been received.

6. The caregiver 'Decision to Expel' letter(s) will be displayed in editable form.  Check the letter carefully and apply any custom changes.   Once the letter has been created any editing of detail via this process will NOT update the letter.   An already created letter can be edited or deleted by a Principal or Principal's Delegate via the designated Suspension Letter page.   This will amend the post only.   Click CONFIRM to proceed.

7. The student will now appear under the NOTICE OF DECISION TO EXPEL tab.  There is no turning back at this stage, but time is required to get the letter to the caregiver and make placement arrangements.  Once these have been done the final step in the process can be carried out.

8.  Click the Move icon to complete the expulsion. 

8.  A confirmation screen will be displayed.  Click CONFIRM to proceed.  The entry will be moved to the EXPELLED tab.

Note:  The student will NOT be made a Former student at this point.   This is due to all enrolment status changes being made via the ERN sync.   The student will need to be unenrolled in ERN which will then sync to Hero the next day and make the student a Former student.

PRINTING AN EXPULSION LETTER

View this article to print a suspension letter.

Printing a Caregiver Suspension or Expulsion Letter