❓ Mr Wyatt questions the Minister for Education regarding the increase in unaccounted for children in the state school system and declining secondary school attendance. The Minister attributes the issue to transient families and outlines measures to track students.
AnsweredQoN 702Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
EDUCATION — SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
I refer to the minister’s comment yesterday that transient families account for 1 300 children going missing from our state school system, and her claim that school attendance has increased since she became minister. (1) On exactly what information did the minister base her claim of transient families being the reason why there are 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown to her department? (2) Why is this a social issue and not an issue that is the minister’s direct responsibility, given that it is published in her annual report? (3) Did the minister mislead the house on school attendance, when her own annual report states that secondary school attendance has declined for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in secondary schools since 2008? Dr E. CONSTABLE
I refer to the minister’s comment yesterday that transient families account for 1 300 children going missing from our state school system, and her claim that school attendance has increased since she became minister. (1) On exactly what information did the minister base her claim of transient families being the reason why there are 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown to her department? (2) Why is this a social issue and not an issue that is the minister’s direct responsibility, given that it is published in her annual report? (3) Did the minister mislead the house on school attendance, when her own annual report states that secondary school attendance has declined for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in secondary schools since 2008? Dr E. CONSTABLE
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
(1) On exactly what information did the minister base her claim of transient families being the reason why there are 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown to her department? (2) Why is this a social issue and not an issue that is the minister’s direct responsibility, given that it is published in her annual report? (3) Did the minister mislead the house on school attendance, when her own annual report states that secondary school attendance has declined for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in secondary schools since 2008? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
(2) Why is this a social issue and not an issue that is the minister’s direct responsibility, given that it is published in her annual report? (3) Did the minister mislead the house on school attendance, when her own annual report states that secondary school attendance has declined for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in secondary schools since 2008? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
(3) Did the minister mislead the house on school attendance, when her own annual report states that secondary school attendance has declined for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in secondary schools since 2008? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
(1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
(1) On exactly what information did the minister base her claim of transient families being the reason why there are 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown to her department? (2) Why is this a social issue and not an issue that is the minister’s direct responsibility, given that it is published in her annual report? (3) Did the minister mislead the house on school attendance, when her own annual report states that secondary school attendance has declined for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in secondary schools since 2008? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
(2) Why is this a social issue and not an issue that is the minister’s direct responsibility, given that it is published in her annual report? (3) Did the minister mislead the house on school attendance, when her own annual report states that secondary school attendance has declined for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in secondary schools since 2008? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
(3) Did the minister mislead the house on school attendance, when her own annual report states that secondary school attendance has declined for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in secondary schools since 2008? Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE replied: (1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
(1)–(3) I gave, as one example of children whose whereabouts are unknown, transient families—people who move from place to place without telling the school that they are leaving. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : So the number of transient families has increased by 80 per cent, has it? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park! Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : We are talking about families that leave their place of residence and go interstate — Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : And you’ve known about them for a long time! Why has it taken so long? The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
The SPEAKER : Member for Victoria Park, you have asked the question. Enable the minister to answer it, without continually interjecting. If you want a supplementary question, member, I am going to give it to you. You know that. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : Thank you, Mr Speaker. What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
What happens is that a school will find that a child is not attending school. It will try to phone and contact the parents in the usual way, as quickly as it is able to. After a short period of non-attendance, someone normally would visit the home, and discover that the family has moved without telling the school that they are moving. This happens quite often. At the moment, there are about 1 300 families that we know about—or 1 300 children of families that we know about, so I would guess it is probably 700 or maybe 800 families that have moved. They move interstate; they move overseas; they move for all sorts of personal reasons. Families break up, people move and go somewhere else and they change the children’s names. We know that this happens. These are the families we are talking about. Some of those families are transient families. And those numbers fluctuate enormously. At the end of 2009, the number was just over 1 000. At the end of the school year in 2010, the number had reached about 1 200-and-something children—I do not have the exact numbers with me—and, at the moment, it is just over 1 300 children whose whereabouts are unknown. It is a social issue. Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : What are you doing to bring these numbers down? Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : I do not make the decisions that families make to move. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, you don’t, but you’re the Minister for Education. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we have to do is make sure that we find those children, if they are still in Western Australia. Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : So what are you doing? Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : What we are doing, particularly through the new Curriculum Authority legislation, is that we will have a student number for all children. With that new legislation, we will gradually over the next year or two or three make sure that every child has a student number. It is a major database issue to put 200 000 or 300 000 children’s names and numbers on a database so that we will be able to track those children in that way. That will give us a tighter system of tracking children. We cannot track children who move interstate. We cannot track children who move overseas with their parents without telling us. Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : No, but you can track that it has gone from 400 to 1 300 in four years. Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : If the member for Victoria Park was moving his child to another school, he would probably pay the school the courtesy of telling it that he was moving so that his child’s name would come off the books. Some people just leave and do not do that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : While you’ve been sitting over there, it has increased to 1 300—by 80 per cent—last year. Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : What I am telling the member for Victoria Park, if he would listen, is that the numbers have always fluctuated dramatically. Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : They have never fluctuated like this, minister. Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : The member does not know that. Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Mr B.S. Wyatt : Show me an annual report where it has. Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
Dr E. CONSTABLE : Those figures are at a point in time. If the member looked, as I said to him, at the last day of school in 2009 and 2010, the numbers are quite different. They do fluctuate—with people moving, with transient people, with people who are itinerant, that is what happens. It is a social phenomenon and one that schools have to deal with, and deal with as well as they can.
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